The Numinous: Non-Rational Elements Of Great Interest In Understanding Religion

The streets of Paris emptied as ominous clouds invaded the previously clear skies. As the first droplets of rain began to descend, two strangers bump into one another as they entered a cafe in search of refuge: Emile Durkheim and Rudolph Otto. Sitting at a dimly light table in the corner of the cafe, Rudolf explains his understanding of religion. “I find that the non-rational elements of experiencing the holy are of great interest in understanding religion. I have coined a term for the category of such elements, the numinous. Succinctly, the numinous may be thought of as a non moral and non rational Holy (i.e. God). The numinous is incomparable to other experiences and lies at the very heart of religion. The experience leads to the sensation

I call the feeling of awe and dread of the numinous mysterium tremendum. It is not the fear, the feeling one might feel if held at gunpoint. Rather it is the feeling of wonder and humility one might feel in the temple of a Greek god, if they believed in his existence. The tremendum, an adjective, connotates the elements of awefulness, majesty, and urgency of the numinous. The numinous is experienced as something “wholly other”, amazing and entirely abnormal, which causes a sense of stupor. The other element of the numinous is complete fascination of the subject with the experience of the

The various clans symbolized by totem entities of animals and plants are significant, not the entities themselves. For religion is sustained by the intense feelings that are only generated by people in social groups. People are amenable to moral authority exercised by a social group as a whole, as well as individuals who garner respect. In a group setting, this authority causes people to feel and behave in ways not conceivable to an isolated individual. The cause is not obviously perceived, which leads to people to assume an external cause, the sacred. Totemism necessarily arose in the social conditions of tribalism. Because people spent the majority of their time in small groups, they rarely were subject to the social force of religion. However, when gatherings grew large enough they achieved effervescence. By this I mean the group believes in the sacred through the collective experience of excitement caused by emotional experience of being in such a large group. I find your concept of the numinous to be quite significant. Yet its point of origin is flawed; it is not the essence of the sacred, but rather derivation of it. As I mentioned earlier, the distinction between the sacred and the profane is a product of