Summary Of Otto's The Idea Of The Holy

Rudolf Otto’s The Idea of the Holy discusses and dissects the origins and ineffable qualities of religion. Otto attempts to recuperate the work “holy” in a general sense to combat the proliferation of the rationalization of religion. In his attempt to redefine the term “holy,” Otto creates new terms to erase the moralized and conceptualized component of the word, with Latin derived phrases including “numen”, “numinous”, “mysterium tremendum”, and “fascinans.” Otto’s goal revolves around bringing the term “holy” back to its most basic state of referring to a moment of pure emotion, an unadulterated experience of religion.

According to Otto, the term “holy” has suffered at the hands of rationalized religion. Otto defines “rational,” as the conceptualization

These “special term[s] stand for ‘holy’ minus its moral factor or ‘moment’ and as we can now add, minus its ‘rational’ aspect altogether” (Otto, 6). These terms refer to the pure emotions one is flooded with when encountering the divine, the “original feeling-response, which can be in itself ethically neutral” (Otto, 6). The numinous differs from “holy” in its complete omission of concepts and rationalization and subsequent total dependence on feelings. Since the numinous is a “state of mind,” it cannot be defined and is “irreducible to any other” mental state (Otto, 6). The totality of emotive qualities within in these terms strive to devalue the preponderance of logic that generally accompanies the word “holy.” Non-rationally, these newly created phrases endeavor to redefine the “holy” as something altogether felt. According to Otto, one cannot learn the numinous; it can only “be evoked, awakened in the mind; as everything that comes ‘of the spirit’ must be awakened” (Otto, 7). This significant break in the definition of “holy” marks Otto’s intention to break from the rational and establish the true nature of the holy, the “innermost core of religion” (Otto, 6). Otto further separates the numinous into additional terms including “creature feeling, “mysterium tremendum”, and “fascinans” to promote the peculiar

Encountering the divine and experiencing the vast feelings that accompany that experience are understandably complex, and require additional terms. The mysterium tremendum addresses two types of emotions felt when encountering the divine. Mysterium refers to the experience as something “wholly other” (Otto, 8). It is a ‘mystery,’ encapsulating the ineffable obscurity of the non-rational numen. It is “barbaric…beautiful, pure, and glorious… extraordinary and unfamiliar” (Otto, 13). The mysterium symbolizes the paradoxical mystery of the divine that infatuates man. Tremendum refers to the “awe and awfulness” of the divine (Otto, 13). Tremor is indicative of tremendum and the fear it stirs forth and refers to the initiation of terror one has when encountering the divine due to its completely, overwhelming existence. The divine is beyond being and proves to be almost an unbearably powerful presence, causing one to feel as small as “ashes and dust” (Otto, 8). This inspired the “creature-feeling” of the numen, where man feels as if his existence is nothing in comparison to the irrepressible and compelling nature of the divine. Additionally, Otto termed fascinans to describe the magnetic attraction one has towards the divine, in spite of the tremendum. Mankind is dumfounded and completely enthralled with the nature of the divine, the its beyond