Rudolf Otto

Rudolf Otto (1869-1937), German philosopher and theologian, who, in his The Idea of the Holy (1917; trans. 1923), attempted to define “the Holy” and the experience of apprehending it.

Born at Peine, September 25, 1869, Otto acquired a thorough knowledge of comparative religion, natural science, and Oriental philosophy at the universities of Erlangen and Göttingen. He taught theology at Göttingen and at the universities of Breslau and Marburg. Early in his career he was influenced by the teachings of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant and the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher. Otto, however, later criticized Schleiermacher's concept of religion as a feeling of absolute dependence because it suggested too close a resemblance to the basic human feeling of dependency.

Otto understood the Holy as a nonhuman, pure “other,” which can be approached on a rational level as well as on a nonrational level as a mysterium (Latin, “mystery”). The existence of the Holy can be rationally determined through the senses, by perceiving, for instance, the order apparent in nature. The nonrational apprehension of the Holy, or “numinous,” has two aspects: fascination, or attraction, and awe. This dual conception of the numinous experience has been criticized by some philosophers who claim that it is appropriate only for primitive religions.

Although The Idea of the Holy is his best-known work, Otto also wrote on his other areas of study. Among his publications are Naturalism and Religion (1904; trans. 1907), in answer to the theories of Charles Darwin, and Mysticism, East and West (1926; trans. 1932). Otto died at Marburg an der Lahn, March 7, 1937.