Anger Through the Ages

Abstract

Abstract This chapter connects the modern experience of anger to Western philosophic and theological traditions. Unlike other traditions, which emphasize the role of transcendence and avoidance of worldly attachments, Western approaches grapple with the question of how cope with anger. Aristotle accepts anger as an inevitable part of human nature and a natural reaction when people feel they have been slighted. He argues that anger serves a social purpose by reducing injustice. In contrast, the stoics saw anger as beastly and inappropriate. The chapter explores theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas’s argument regarding the sinfulness of anger. It also considers Dante’s The Divine Comedy, which included three types of angry people in the fifth circle of hell.