Astonishment, fear and trembling

Meaning

A cluster of affective words marks the contemplated union of soul, spirit, and body in the completed material work. The main treatise says that this union can scarcely be seen without astonishment, fear, and terror. The emotion is not simply delight at an attractive colour: it accompanies the claimed emergence of a newly risen, perfect, glorified body. The preceding colours count as a favourable indication when they follow in order, but the union prompts an inexpressible wonder. English “trembling” gives the cluster a bodily force without establishing a separate technical stage or substance.