[f. THEO- + -PHOBIA. Cf. F. théophobie (a. 1784 in Littré, Suppl.).] Anxious fear of God; dread of divine anger; rarely, aversion to or hatred of God. So Theophobist, one who is affected with theophobia.
1870. O. W. Holmes, Mechanism (1888), 105. Pascal, whose reverence amounted to *theophobia.
1885. Swinburne, Misc. (1886), 239. His … masterpiece of Cain,… might seem to a devout spirit to have been dictated by actual theophobia.
1899. Expositor, Oct., 317. Those men laboured under a terrible disease—it is called Theophobia.
1885. Mrs. H. Ward, trans. Amiel’s Jrnl., II. 134. A *theophobist, whom faith in goodness rouses to a fury of contempt.
