Rejoice and Tremble: The Surprising Good News of the Fear of the Lord (Union)

by Michael Reeves

Recent scientific studies confirm some of these benefits of awe for healthy living. In 2018, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology reported on a series of studies that sought to show how experiences of awe promote greater humility. They found that “when individuals encounter an entity that is vast and challenges their worldview, they feel awe, which leads to self-diminishment and subsequently humility.” They also found that “inducing awe led participants to present a more balanced view of their strengths and weaknesses to others . . . and acknowledge, to a greater degree, the contribution of outside forces in their own personal accomplishments.”17 Another set of studies published in 2018, in Emotion, sought to demonstrate the impact of awe on well-being and stress-related symptoms. The authors found that for every participant in the studies, after experiences of awe, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder decreased, while scores of general happiness, satisfaction with life, and social well-being, all improved.18 This followed a report in the same journal in 2015 showing that people who experienced more awe also appeared to have better immune health. Studying the effect of emotions on pro-inflammatory cytokines (high levels of which have been associated with conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and depression), researchers found that awe was the emotion most likely linked to lower levels of these molecules.19