The Idea Of The Holy

The Idea Of The Holy

Introduction

Religion has always been one of the most fundamental pillars of the nation. It has often been tied to the social, economic, as well as political aspects of nations. However, the understanding of religion has often been shrouded in mystery with varied aspects being unclear, at least to the common mortals. This, in essence, has attracted the attention of scholars who have tried to explore its varied aspects, as well as come up with varied theories explaining the mystery. One of these is Dr. Rudolf Otto, whose book, “The idea of the Holy”, explored one of the primary components of religion, which is The Numinous.

Question 1

Otto explains the numinous experience as the holy devoid of its moral factor. It is both a category of being and of feeling. It underlines a religious feeling that comes with a distinctive form of religious knowledge that cannot be accessed to the ordinary rational understanding. The numinous experience is composed of a number of elements.

First, there is the element if creature feeling, which is explained as the emotion or feeling of a creature being overwhelmed and submerged by its own nothingness rather than that which comes as supreme to all creatures (Otto 4).

The second characteristic is what he calls the “mysterium tremendum”, or tremendous mystery. As mysterium, Otto states that the numinous experience is “wholly other”, or rather entirely different from things that individuals experience in their ordinary lives. It underlines the notion of being something that goes beyond the realm of the intelligible and familiar, in which case it falls outside the boundaries of the canny (Otto 6). This feature underlines the fact that it would elicit a reaction of silence and fill the creature’s mind with astonishment and blank wonder. The numinous being mysterium tremendum, means that it rouses terror as it comes as an overwhelming power. Mysterium tremendum comes with three characteristics of the numinous, which are the absolute unapproachability, power, as well as the energy or urgency, which is essentially a force whose easiest perception revolves around the “wrath of God”.

The numinous experience is also characterized by the element of “fascinans” or fascination, which underlines an attractiveness or potent charm despite the terror and fear that it souses in individuals. In this case, while the creature trembles at the transcendent, it would seek to turn to it, thereby making it his own (Otto 7).

Question 2

Otto uses the term creature–consciousness (also known as creature-feeling) to underline the emotion pertaining to a creature where it is overwhelmed or submerged in its own nothingness rather than to the things that are supreme over all creatures. In essence, this phrase comes as a conceptual explanation pertaining to the feeling or experience of being in the presence of the numinous. It is worth noting that, the numen praesens or numinous presence inspires, in the individual who is experiencing the presence, the creature feeling. The sense of autonomy comes as a response of an individual to the presence of the numinous or the numen. It is worth noting that the numinous is not a feeling that is inferred by rationality or human reason, rather is felt as objective, as well as outside the realm of the self (Otto 11). However, Otto notes that, as much as the experiences of the numinous may have evolved from earlier religious consciousness, there is a difference between creature-consciousness and the primitive religious consciousness. This is especially considering that the primitive religious consciousness had “daemonic dread” as the primary feeling-response reaction. The crude or primitive religious consciousness eventually evolved to a nobler, as well as elevated experience over the centuries, which is the creature-consciousness.

Question 3

The “Law of Association of (analogous) Feelings” is a phrase that is used to underline the notion that a feeling may arouse or trigger similar feelings. In cases where a non-religious feeling has sufficient resemblance to a numerous experience, it has the capacity to trigger it in an individual’s mind. This law pertaining to the reproduction of similar feelings revolves around the fact that there exists an imperceptibly gradual substitution pertaining to the non-religious feeling or experience by its like, the religious or numinous feeling, with the former exiting from the scene while the latter increases in corresponding degree. Feelings have the capacity to arouse similar feelings, in which case the presence of one feeling in an individual’s consciousness may essentially be the occasion for allowing or entertaining the other feeling (Otto 43). Natural feelings have the capacity to stimulate or trigger, as well as be replaced by numinous feelings. There exists a numinous “overplus” in the numinous awe, which can only be revealed in religious feeling through the functioning of the law of analogous feelings. This quality in experiencing the numinous awe cannot be reproduced in the natural or non-religious feelings of awe (Otto 45) Numinous feelings, in essence, have connections or links with the related or associated natural feelings that afford analogies and are parallel to them in varied ways, “but do not coincide with them in precise point-to-point correspondence” (Otto 47).

Works cited

Otto, Rudolf The Idea of the Holy: An Inquiry into the Non-rational Factor in the Idea of the Divine and Its Relation to the Rational, Second edition, tr. John W. Harvey. New York: Oxford University Press, 1923. Print