The Idea of the Holy. Religion beyond the grasp of reason...
Written: Oct 10 '04 (Updated Oct 22 '04)
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Pros: Fervent, expressive prose; pioneering approach; enlightening insights into the irrational and rational elements of religion.
Cons: Not enough space is awarded to non-Christian religions.
The Bottom Line: Anyone with an interest in the religious experience should read this essential book.
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| platonism's Full Review: Rudolf Otto - Idea of the Holy |
The importance of Rudolf Otto's The Idea of the Holy (1917) cannot be underestimated. It has influenced several major figures in the field of religious studies for the past eighty-five years. But this does not mean that it has been accepted without reservations. It is in fact a very controversial book, and its readers tend to emphasize one or more of its elements, choosing to ignore others because they are more difficult to caution. Still, anyone with even a passing interest in the religious experience should read this essential work.
The irrational and rational elements of religion
Otto suggests that one can find irrational and rational elements in religion. The rational elements can be grasped by reason and thought, and they include specific theological and philosophical doctrines about God (God is good, omniscient, etc.), myths and allegories, which are drawn from symbols, cults, rites and liturgies, moral precepts, etc. As important as these elements undoubtedly are, they remain rational elaborations of a primordial, pre-conceptual and pre-rational experience; an experience which man tries to describe in his myths, treatises or rites. Mysticism and the mystical experience exalt to the utmost the irrational elements of religion. Such an experience cannot be described with words, it goes beyond concepts and discursive thought. Otto deems this experience that of the numinous: a state of mind in which something, the numinous, is encountered and felt.
What is the numinous?
What is the numinous? It cannot be described externally or objectively, but can only be approached through the emotions it provokes in us. Throughout The Idea of the Holy, Otto offers a variety of expressions (most of them in Latin) to give us a better idea about what the numinous is. Readers of this book should not expect a dry, impassioned text: the work is just as fervent as its subject matter, and Otto warns us that it was written for readers who either have already had a religious experience, or can at least sympathize with it.
The numinous is the mysterium tremendum: a mystery that startles and shocks us as we experience the ganz andere (the wholly other). Otto contends that this primordial terror gave birth to the belief in gods, daemons, angels and spirits, and it also served as the inspiration of fables and myths: these aspects are all projections of a primary and ineffable experience. The theme of the wrath of God is closely linked to this mysterium tremendum. Experiencing the numinous can also give us a sense of majestas, of the infinite power and potentiality of what we have encountered. This in turn gives birth to what Otto deems the 'feeling of the creature', i.e. the feeling of being inordinately small in comparison to the wholly other.
But this sense of terror is balanced by pure fascination and attraction: Otto deems this the fascinans aspect of the numinous. It has to do with a Dionysian undercurrent in mysticism and rites in general: in such rites and spiritual practices, man tries to appropriate the numinous. This mystical appropriation cannot be described but only experienced. This is in line with negative theology because it wants to reach something that lies beyond all concepts and thoughts, and like all negative theology it also implies a positive aspect – namely, the ineffable experience itself. [Readers intrigued by negative theology might want to read what I have written about one of its most fascinating representents, the Pseudo-Dionysius.]
In some of the book's chapters, Otto develops his view of the sacred as an a priori component of reason: that is, the intuition of the sacred lies dormant in human souls, and can be awaken when man is confronted to certain thoughts or objects. This is an intuitive process that is often 'propelled' by sense perception, but it does not derive from sense perception – it remains a latent disposition, prior to any experience.
Otto's problem
Otto was a Christian, and this can easily be inferred throughout the book: he awards a lot of space to the Judeo-Christian tradition (whole sections to the Old and New Testament, Luther, both ancient and modern Christianity) and most of the religious hymns he discusses are Christian. This allegiance colors his commentary and raises some difficulties.
He often mentions that specific beliefs (in daemons, angels, spirits, etc.), myths and rites are all conceptual, rational elaborations of an irrational encounter with the ineffable numinous. This entails a conception of religious progress – progress from the irrational to the rational. It is clear that for him, going from the irrational to the rational results in qualitative progress, and thus Christianity, the most moral (or moralized) of all religions, is ultimately held as the greatest. But if Christianity is the most rational of all religions (Otto states this repeatedly), why is it the most discussed in a book that wishes to delve into the irrational elements of religion?
In other words, Otto is torn between his interest in the irrational elements of religion, which are a lot easier to find in archaic cultures and beliefs, and his own allegiance to Christianity: he wants to justify his beliefs by finding as many irrational elements as he can in Christian hymns, Biblical passages, etc. His insights on the rational/irrational aspects of Christianity are enlightening and beautifully written, but he unfortunately neglects ethnological sources that inform us of lesser-known religious beliefs and civilizations. Despite the book's wide-ranging title, its tone is sometimes very close to that of apologetic writings.
In many ways, Mircea Eliade (1907-1986), who would go on to write some of the most important books in the field of religious studies, pursues Otto's project in a more universal manner: much like Otto, Eliade is more interested in the primordial, pre-conceptual religious experience than in its later rationalizations. But unlike Otto, he extensively uses ethnological documents, because it is in pre-conceptual religions that one can find the purest expression of Otto's experience of the numinous; Eliade would also criticize the positivist bent of many historians of religions, in that these thinkers kept trying to discover the origin of religion and show its 'evolution' or progress, thereby simplifying the material they were working on. [Note: I have already reviewed Eliade's The Sacred and the Profane.]
Essential reading
In spite of these difficulties, The Idea of the Holy remains an extremely stimulating book. Otto's general neglect of ethnological sources does not invalidate his cardinal intuition: one must not take the rational/moral elements of religion as the whole of religion. Behind or beyond lies a primordial experience which escapes reason's grasp; an experience which can only be lived, and not described. Thinkers such as F. Schleiermacher and J.F. Fries had already evoked it, but Otto went even farther and made this experience the center of his inquiry. Some of the 20th century's most important studies in religion are indebted to Otto's pioneering book, and I warmly recommend it.
Recommended:
Yes
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platonism
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