Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part 1: Why fear? Why now? This emotional life ; A culture of fear -- Part 2: What does it mean to be afraid? Our frightened brains ; Communities of faith, communities of fear -- Part 3: A pastoral theology of fear and hope. A process perspective ; Fear and hope -- Part 4: Responding to our fears. Telling ourselves a more complex story ; Fear in the public sphere ; Perfect love drives out fear ; Conclusion: finding hope.

"Our brains are hard-wired to experience the emotion of fear. Yet "do not be afraid" is a common refrain from the Bible, used for both comfort and chastening. Too often, we have treated fear, an emotion that helps protect us from threats, as something simply to be dismissed, ignored, or suppressed. Being afraid means so much more than simply fighting or running from a threat; to be afraid is to remember that something in life is worth living for. In fact, there may even be circumstances where fear is God's best response to what we are experiencing. In this book, Whitehead helps us find the roots of hope in the soil of our fears so that we can form lives and communities of hope in the midst of a culture of fear."--Publisher's website.