The fundamental questions and problems associated with the phenomenon of anxiety have preoccupied humanity for millennia. People have always been exposed to external dangers and confronted with the possibilities of poverty, illness, and death. However, different eras, cultures, and theories have emphasized different aspects and assessed these issues in various ways. This chapter aims to illustrate, through several significant examples from the history of ideas, the contributions made to the understanding of fear, anxieties, and mental anxiety in selected theories of Western cultural development. The discussion spans from antiquity, through the Christian-theological conception of fear of God, the worldview and conception of humanity in the modern era, the subject-theoretical considerations of Kant, Hegel, and Schelling, up to the specific characteristics of modernity.