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Rudolf Otto's Religion

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ESSAY #2
RUDOLF OTTO'S THE IDEA OF THE HOLY

Rudolf Otto (1869-1937) was a famous person of comparing religion in the first half of the twentieth century. His analysis of the holy, that he called as “numinous”, became a giant foundation of all religion.
“Numinous” means that indicating or suggesting the presence of a divinity. “Numinous” is a word that Otto called for his experiences. “Numinous” includes two components that people usually called as “mysterium tremendum et fascinans” in Latin. “Mysterium” means stupor or mystery. “Tremendum” relates to awfulness, terror, demonic dread. “Fascinans” is the attractiveness in spite of fear. People translate this Latin phrase “mysterium tremendum et fascinans” into English as “fearful and fascinating …show more content…

Otto states that "There is no religion in which it does not live as the real innermost core, and without it no religion would be worthy of the name"(6). According to the paragraph above, “Numinous” has two important components that Otto has a long discussion in chapter Four. “Mysterium” comprises two elements. First, it is something amazing, attractive and marvelous like a magic show or science fiction movie. The other element is fascination; higher than fascination, it turns to be enraptured. “Tremendum” has three elements: awfulness, which makes a kind of profound unease; dreadfulness; energy, which creates a huge power.
On chapter Four, Otto states that “WE said above that the nature of the numinous can only be suggested by means of the special way in which it is reflected in the mind in terms of feeling. Its nature is such that it grips or stirs the human mind with this and that deter minate affective state. We have now to attempt to give a further indication of these determinate states. We must once again endeavour, by adducing feelings akin to them for the purpose of analogy or contrast, and by the use of metaphor and symbolic expressions, to make the states of mind we

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