To have faith requires courage, the ability to take a risk, the readiness even to accept pain and disappointment. Whoever insists on safety and security as primary conditions of life cannot have faith; whoever shuts himself off in a system of defense, where distance and possession are his means of security, makes himself a prisoner. To be loved, and to love, need courage, the courage to judge certain values as of ultimate concern – and to take the jump and to stake everything on these values.

). He observed that embracing our freedom of will was healthy whereas escaping freedom through the use of escape mechanisms was the root of psychological conflicts. Drawing from his knowledge of the Torah Fromm pointed to the story of Jonah who did not wish to save the residents of Nineveh from the consequences of their sin as demonstrative of his belief that the qualities of care and responsibility are generally absent from most human relationships.

Erich SeligmannFromm (March 23 1900 – March 18 1980) was a German social psychologist psychoanalyst sociologist humanistic philosopher and democratic socialist.