Rudolf Otto
Rudolf Otto | |
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Died | 6 March 1937 Marburg, Germany | (aged 67)
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Rudolf Otto (25 September 1869 – 7 March 1937) was an eminent German Lutheran theologian, philosopher, and comparative religionist. He is regarded as one of the most influential scholars of religion in the early twentieth century and is best known for his concept of the numinous, a profound emotional experience he argued was at the heart of the world's religions.[1] While his work started in the domain of liberal Christian theology, its main thrust was always apologetical, seeking to defend religion against naturalist critiques.[2] Otto eventually came to conceive of his work as part of a science of religion, which was divided into the philosophy of religion, the history of religion, and the psychology of religion.[2]
Life
Born in
Otto's fascination with non-Christian religions was awakened during an extended trip from 1911 to 1912 through North Africa,
Meanwhile, in 1915, he became ordinary professor at the
Thought
Influences
In his early years Otto was most influenced by the
Early works
Otto's first book, Naturalism and Religion (1904) divides the world
In 1909, he published his next book, The Philosophy of Religion Based on Kant and Fries, in which he examines the thought of
These two early works were influenced by the rationalist approaches of Immanuel Kant and Jakob Fries. Otto stated that they focused on the rational aspects of the divine (the "Ratio aeterna") whereas his next (and most influential) book focused on the nonrational aspects of the divine.[5]
The Idea of the Holy
Otto's most famous work, The Idea of the Holy was one of the most successful German theological books of the 20th century, has never gone out of print, and is available in about 20 languages. The central argument of the book concerns the term numinous, which Otto coined. He explains the numinous as a "non-rational, non-sensory experience or feeling whose primary and immediate object is outside the self". This mental state "presents itself as ganz Andere,[6][7][8] wholly other, a condition absolutely sui generis and incomparable whereby the human being finds himself utterly abashed."[9] According to Mark Wynn in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Idea of the Holy falls within a paradigm in the philosophy of emotion in which emotions are seen as including an element of perception with intrinsic epistemic value that is neither mediated by thoughts nor simply a response to physiological factors. Otto therefore understands religious experience as having mind-independent phenomenological content rather than being an internal response to belief in a divine reality. Otto applied this model specifically to religious experiences, which he felt were qualitatively different from other emotions.[10] Otto felt people should first do serious rational study of God, before turning to the non-rational element of God as he did in this book.[5][11]
Later works
In Mysticism East and West, published in German in 1926 and English in 1932, Otto compares and contrasts the views of the medieval German Christian mystic Meister Eckhart with those of the influential Hindu philosopher Adi Shankara, the key figure of the Advaita Vedanta school.[2]
Influence
Otto left a broad influence on theology, religious studies, and philosophy of religion, which continues into the 21st century.[12]
Christian theology
Karl Barth, an influential Protestant theologian contemporary to Otto, acknowledged Otto's influence and approved a similar conception of God as ganz Andere or totaliter aliter,[13] thus falling within the tradition of apophatic theology.[14][15] Otto was also one of the very few modern theologians to whom C. S. Lewis indicates a debt, particularly to the idea of the numinous in The Problem of Pain. In that book Lewis offers his own description of the numinous:[16]
Suppose you were told there was a tiger in the next room: you would know that you were in danger and would probably feel fear. But if you were told "There is a ghost in the next room," and believed it, you would feel, indeed, what is often called fear, but of a different kind. It would not be based on the knowledge of danger, for no one is primarily afraid of what a ghost may do to him, but of the mere fact that it is a ghost. It is "uncanny" rather than dangerous, and the special kind of fear it excites may be called Dread. With the Uncanny one has reached the fringes of the Numinous. Now suppose that you were told simply "There is a mighty spirit in the room," and believed it. Your feelings would then be even less like the mere fear of danger: but the disturbance would be profound. You would feel wonder and a certain shrinking—a sense of inadequacy to cope with such a visitant and of prostration before it—an emotion which might be expressed in Shakespeare's words "Under it my genius is rebuked." This feeling may be described as awe, and the object which excites it as the Numinous.
German-American theologian
Non-Christian theology and spirituality
Otto's ideas have also exerted an influence on non-Christian theology and spirituality. They have been discussed by
The literature of religious experience abounds in references to the pains and terrors overwhelming those who have come, too suddenly, face to face with some manifestation of the mysterium tremendum. In theological language, this fear is due to the in-compatibility between man's egotism and the divine purity, between man's self-aggravated separateness and the infinity of God.
Religious studies
In The Idea of the Holy and other works, Otto set out a paradigm for the
Psychology
Philosophy
The philosopher and sociologist Max Horkheimer, a member of the Frankfurt School, has taken the concept of "wholly other" in his 1970 book Die Sehnsucht nach dem ganz Anderen ("longing for the entirely Other").[25][26] Walter Terence Stace wrote in his book Time and Eternity that "After Kant, I owe more to Rudolph Otto's The Idea of the Holy than to any other book."[27] Other philosophers influenced by Otto included Martin Heidegger,[17] Leo Strauss,[17] Hans-Georg Gadamer (who was critical when younger but respectful in his old age),[citation needed] Max Scheler,[17] Edmund Husserl,[17] Joachim Wach,[3][17] and Hans Jonas.[citation needed]
Other
The war veteran and writer Ernst Jünger and the historian and scientist Joseph Needham also cited Otto's influence.[citation needed]
Ecumenical activities
Otto was heavily involved in
Works
A full bibliography of Otto's works is given in Robert F. Davidson, Rudolf Otto's Interpretation of Religion (Princeton, 1947), pp. 207–9
In German
- Naturalistische und religiöse Weltansicht (1904)
- Die Kant-Friesische Religions-Philosophie (1909)
- Das Heilige – Über das Irrationale in der Idee des Göttlichen und sein Verhältnis zum Rationalen (Breslau, 1917)
- West-östliche Mystik (1926)
- Die Gnadenreligion Indiens und das Christentum (1930)
- Reich Gottes und Menschensohn (1934)
English translations
- Naturalism and Religion, trans J. Arthur Thomson & Margaret Thomson (London: Williams and Norgate, 1907) [originally published 1904]
- The Life and Ministry of Jesus, According to the Critical Method (Chicago: Open Court, 1908), ISBN 0-8370-4648-3.
- ISBN 0-19-500210-5[originally published 1917]
- Christianity and the Indian Religion of Grace (Madras, 1928)
- India's Religion of Grace and Christianity Compared and Contrasted, trans FH Foster (New York; London, 1930)
- 'The Sensus Numinis as the Historical Basis of Religion', Hibbert Journal29, (1930), 1–8
- The Philosophy of Religion Based on Kant and Fries, trans EB Dicker (London, 1931) [originally published 1909]
- Religious essays: A supplement to 'The Idea of the Holy', trans B Lunn, (London, 1931)
- Mysticism East and West: A Comparative Analysis of the Nature of Mysticism, trans BL Bracey and RC Payne (New York, 1932) [originally published 1926]
- 'In the sphere of the holy', Hibbert Journal 31 (1932–3), 413–6
- The original Gita: The song of the Supreme Exalted One (London, 1939)
- The Kingdom of God and the Son of Man: A Study in the History of Religion, trans FV Filson and BL Wolff (Boston, 1943)
- Autobiographical and Social Essays (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1996), ISBN 3-11-014518-9
See also
- Christian philosophy
- Christian ecumenism
- Christian mysticism
- Neurotheology
- Argument from religious experience
- Hard problem of consciousness
- The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James
- Perceiving God by William Alston
- The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley
- The Case for God by Karen Armstrong
- I and Thou by Martin Buber
References
- ^ Adler, Joseph. "Rudolf Otto's Concept of the Numinous". Gambier, OH: Kenyon College. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Alles, Gregory D. (2005). "Otto, Rudolf". Encyclopedia of Religion. Farmington hills, MI: Thomson Gale. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
- ^ a b c "Louis Karl Rudolf Otto Facts". Encyclopedia of World Biography. Retrieved 24 October 2016 – via YourDictionary.
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
- ^ a b Ross, Kelley. "Rudolf Otto (1869–1937)". Retrieved 19 October 2016.
- ISBN 978-3-110-14519-9.
- ISBN 978-0-804-76043-0.
- ISBN 978-1-444-32016-9.
- ISBN 978-0-567-52728-8.
- ^ Wynn, Mark (19 December 2016). "Section 2.1 Emotional feelings and encounter with God". Phenomenology of Religion. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
- ISBN 0-19-500210-5. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
- ^ ISBN 9780199340378. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
- ISBN 978-1-438-42347-0.
- ISBN 978-0-804-76043-0.
- ISBN 978-1-444-32016-9.
- ISBN 978-0-007-33226-7.
- ^ ISBN 3-11-016799-9.
- ISBN 978-1-118-42154-3.
- ISBN 978-1-906764-13-5.
- ^ Berkovits, Eliezer, God, Man and History, 2004, pp. 166, 170.
- ISBN 1-4000-6213-6.
- ISBN 9780060595180.
- ISBN 978-0-156-79201-1.
- ^ Agnel, Aimé. "Numinous (Analytical Psychology)". International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. Retrieved 9 November 2016 – via Encyclopedia.com.
- ISBN 978-0-804-74528-4.
- S2CID 145341864.
- ISBN 0-83711867-0. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
Further reading
- Almond, Philip C., 1984, 'Rudolf Otto: An Introduction to his Philosophical Theology', Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
- Davidson, Robert F, 1947, Rudolf Otto's Interpretation of Religion, Princeton
- Gooch, Todd A, 2000, The Numinous and Modernity: An Interpretation of Rudolf Otto's Philosophy of Religion. Preface by ISBN 3-11-016799-9.
- Ludwig, Theodore M (1987), 'Otto, Rudolf' in Encyclopedia of Religion, vol 11, pp. 139–41
- Raphael, Melissa, 1997, Rudolf Otto and the concept of holiness, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- Mok, Daniël (2012). Rudolf Otto: Een kleine biografie. Preface by ISBN 978-90-79133-08-6.
- Mok, Daniël et al. (2002). Een wijze uit het westen: Beschouwingen over Rudolf Otto. Preface by ISBN 90-70459-36-1(print), 978-90-79133-00-0 (ebook).
- Moore, John Morrison, 1938, Theories of Religious Experience, with special reference to James, Otto and Bergson, New York
External links
- Otto and the Numinous
- Numinous – references from several thinkers at Earthpages.ca
- International Congress: Rudolf Otto – University of Marburg, 2012
- Works by Rudolf Otto at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Rudolf Otto at Internet Archive
- Newspaper clippings about Rudolf Otto in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW