An Exploration of Spooky Words and Holiness (Part I: Tremendous)
October: a month that, for many, is a time for celebrating all things spooky. Personally, I’ve never been into horror movies or anything that seeks to elicit real fear just for the experience of it. But I can appreciate — whether in a film, painting, song, or other art form — the acknowledgement and exploration of the unknown, the uncanny, or the supernatural. There is something primal and, I think, deeply significant about the notion of human frailty and helplessness in the face of things too big or too wondrous for our understanding.
Have you ever felt a sense of fear at the sight of a full moon? Particularly, when the moon is near the horizon and appears to be bigger/closer than normal? A big, bright, full moon has often caused me to shudder, and I’ve never been quite sure why that is. I suppose it feels like a boundary being crossed — something larger than anything on earth, seeming to cross a threshold it should not.
There may be other things about the moon that contribute to its spookiness, but I think it’s noteworthy that the sheer size of something can be cause for fear. When we have a specific expectation about how big something should be, it can be terrifying to see or even imagine a version of it that is much bigger (the sight of a truly gigantic insect or rodent would terrify just about any of us). With that in mind, I was fascinated recently to learn about the etymology of the word “tremendous”. The root is the same as that of the word “tremble,” as it originally referred to things that would cause one to tremble in fear. It appears that since really large things are frequently the cause of such trembling, the meaning of “tremendous” gradually changed to refer simply to magnitude.
In his book “The Idea of the Holy,” Rudolf Otto employs the word “numinous” to explore the variety of experiences, feelings, and ideas associated with humans encountering holiness. He argues that though we often associate holiness simply with righteousness, it is not merely a moral concept. There are several other facets to holiness, and one of them is sheer tremendousness (in both its modern and older definitions). So for God, his incomprehensible magnitude is an aspect of his holiness.
When we see a big, full moon in the dark sky, or consider the vastness of the universe, or count the stars in the night sky, it may properly inspire some amount of trembling. Perhaps part of God’s rationale for making us so relatively tiny on the astronomical scale was to give us a proximate way of grasping this aspect of himself. That’s not to say that God wants us to fear for fear’s sake, but fear is inevitable when we encounter holiness. If we can appreciate our fear in the face of the moon and the night sky, maybe it prepares us for the humility required to seek the holy God.
Throughout the rest of October, I intend to follow up this article with several more exploring other aspects of holiness and the fear of God, including mystery, sublimity, and righteousness.