Analysis Of Rudolf Otto's The Idea Of The Holy
The human mind’s ability and innate desire to justify and explain the world and its phenomena has led to some of the most significant and world-altering discoveries and inventions, illustrated throughout the renaissance, enlightenment, scientific revolution, and industrial revolution. Logical pursuits comprise a significant capstone of human nature and progress. However, according to Rudolf Otto in The Idea of the Holy, these tendencies have created different dimensions of religion; the rational and non-rational, with the latter often times overlooked. The most significant difference between the rational and non-rational aspects of religion deal with their respective emphasis on reason and feeling. Rudolph Otto prioritizes the non-rational
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However, the nature of his phrases focuses entirely on analogizing the essence of the non-rational, thereby omitting the rational aspects he took issue with. The numinous refers to the “extra” meaning regarding the “holy” (Otto, 6). The mysterium tremendum combines two words with separate emotive qualities with mysterium referring to the “wholly other,” a wonder inducing ‘mystery,’ while tremendum refers to the arousal of terror regarding the mountainous, almost unbearable presence of the divine, which produces a feeling of existence relative to “ashes and dust” (Otto, 8). Both of these phrases attempt to record the experiences of the non-rational. Notwithstanding his effective descriptions and valiant attempts, his creations are inadvertently deficient, due to language’s inadequacy in relating meaning to the divine. Acknowledging this, Otto understands the mysterium is “merely an ideogram, an analogical notion taken from the natural sphere, illustrating, but incapable of exhaustively rendering, our real meaning” (Otto, 26). Language’s mere existence as a human created tool for communication renders it incapable of ever reaching the level of sophistication and “beyond being” character that articulating the divine requires. God simply traverses all human
However, the nature of his phrases focuses entirely on analogizing the essence of the non-rational, thereby omitting the rational aspects he took issue with. The numinous refers to the “extra” meaning regarding the “holy” (Otto, 6). The mysterium tremendum combines two words with separate emotive qualities with mysterium referring to the “wholly other,” a wonder inducing ‘mystery,’ while tremendum refers to the arousal of terror regarding the mountainous, almost unbearable presence of the divine, which produces a feeling of existence relative to “ashes and dust” (Otto, 8). Both of these phrases attempt to record the experiences of the non-rational. Notwithstanding his effective descriptions and valiant attempts, his creations are inadvertently deficient, due to language’s inadequacy in relating meaning to the divine. Acknowledging this, Otto understands the mysterium is “merely an ideogram, an analogical notion taken from the natural sphere, illustrating, but incapable of exhaustively rendering, our real meaning” (Otto, 26). Language’s mere existence as a human created tool for communication renders it incapable of ever reaching the level of sophistication and “beyond being” character that articulating the divine requires. God simply traverses all human