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Some Later Thoughts of Otto on the HolyAuthor(s): Robert F. StreetmanSource: Journal of the American Academy of Religion , Vol. 48, No. 3 (Sep., 1980), pp. 365-384Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1462866Accessed: 25-04-2016 18:14 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at

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The Journal of the American Academy of Religion, XLVIII/3,

Some Later Thoughts of Otto on the Holy

Robert F. Streetman

ABSTRACT

It is difficult to emerge from the academic study of religion today without encountering, however briefly, the thought of Rudolph Otto in The Idea of the Holy. In extraordinary cases, British and American scholars who read Otto only in English may extend the encounter as far as Mysticism East and West or even to The Kingdom of God and the Son of Man.

That Otto has made an impact on religious studies is undeniable, but whatever became of him? This paper discusses the ways in which, in the last two decades of his life, Otto explored the further implications of his basic concept of the Holy and extended his expertise into numerous other areas of learning both theoretical and practical. In the theoretical sphere, Otto continued his dialogue with Schleiermacher, finding in the latter's thought both bane and blessing; translated several important works of classical Hinduism and Bhakti faith into German; published a number of significant comparative studies of Eastern and Western religions; and made further explorations of the numinous dimensions of some basic issues in the study of Christianity. Nor was he any less industrious in exploring the implications of numinous consciousness for the practical sphere, where he was involved in several experiments in liturgical reform, was instrumental in establishing at Marburg a library for the study of world religions, and was a moving force in both ecumenical and interreligious affairs.

I shall argue that much of what he learned, in these final years of his life, is more relevant to us today than it was to his own generation

of German- and English-speaking scholars. I shall support this thesis with a study of some of the results of his work in this later period.

Robert F. Streetman (Ph.D., Drew University) is Associate Professor of Religion at Montclair State College, where he directs the Religious Studies program. His latest work is Is Solar Mythology Moving out of Eclipse? in the forthcoming HELIOS: From Myth to Solar Energy.



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T hese words of Joachim Wach provide an initial focal point for

Two theological books profoundly impressed the generation of students which populated the German universities after the First World War: the Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans by Karl Barth and The Idea of the Holy by Rudolf Otto. It is not without significance that these were both books which made considerable demands on their readers. The effect of

the work of Barth might be called sensational. This, however, did not prevent it from being not only a widespread but also a profound one, as the last three decades have demonstrated. While there was, even shortly after its publication, much talk of Barthians, and a Barthian Ortho- doxy began to develop, not necessarily with the blessing of the master, there were never really any Ottonians. But laymen and theologians, theologians of very different schools and denominations throughout the last thirty years, have read The Idea of the Holy, and have confessed to having been deeply stirred and influenced by that work. Both thinkers have found echoes far beyond the borders of Germany, especially in the Anglo-Saxon countries (209)./1/

Clearly, Otto has slain his thousands, and Barth his tens of thousands. These words show two things. First, we learn that Otto achieved a

far-reaching impact in the decades following World War I. We are reminded, secondly, that his influence was clearly overshadowed by the Barthian revolution. Nevertheless, it is difficult, even today, to emerge from the serious academic study of religion without some kind of exposure to the thought of Rudolf Otto (1869-1937). It is unfortunate, however, as I shall want to argue, that this exposure in the Anglo- Saxon countries-and particularly among American scholars-so often seems to stop with Das Heilige (1917; E.T., The Idea of the Holy, 1923)./2/ If, perchance, an American reader ventures beyond Das Heilige, the encounter is most likely with West-Ostliche Mystik: Vergleich und Unterscheidung, Zur Wesensdeutung (1926; E.T., Mysticism East and West, 1932) and Reich Gottes und Menschensohn (1934; E.T., The Kingdom of God and the Son of Man, 1938).

After writing three such diverse and influential works, Otto might not have been blamed for resting on his laurels and merely polishing and refining his insights in revised editions. As it turned out, however,

such a suggestion is the very opposite of the case. Otto was to live twenty more years after the appearance of Das Heilige and was to pursue the further implications of the basic concept of the numinous, to extend his expertise into several other areas of research and to translate his theoretical apprehension of the numinous into the practical sphere. For example, in the theoretical sphere, he continued an earlier dialogue with Schleiermacher; produced an impressive series of translations from the Sanskrit into German; expanded his already impressive series of studies in comparative religion (while striving to overcome the prevailing pejorative connotations of that approach) and intensified his understanding of some basic issues in the



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study of Christianity. Nor was he sparing in his efforts in the practical sphere; for he made numerous experiments in the field of liturgical reform, laid significant groundwork for ecumenical and interreligious understanding, and founded the famous Religious Collection of numinous symbols at Marburg as the basis of a research center for scholars of religious studies from throughout the world.

This essay will be mainly concerned with Otto's later thoughts on the Holy during these two final decades of his life. After a reminder of some of his thoughts about the sensus numinis in The Idea of the Holy, the focus will shift to his various later accomplishments in the theoreti-

cal and practical spheres, and then to some reflections as to the reasons why a scholar -with the versatility of Otto, and with many more works in English than one might think to be the case-does not seem to have made more of an impact on English-speaking, particularly on American, thinkers.

I. The Context of The Idea of the Holy

Those whose acquaintance with Otto's thought is restricted to a reading of Das Heilige may easily misconstrue the objective of this opus. John M. Moore writes: It is a complete mistake to treat The Idea of the Holy as if it were a complete account of Otto's theory of religion, for in it he emphasizes the non-rational aspect of experience in a way which is easily misunderstood unless seen against the background of his other works (79). These words reinforce Otto's own reply to his critics, which he made in the foreword to the first English edition of The Idea of the Holy. To the various charges of irrationalism, subjectivism, and psychologism, he answered: Before I ventured upon this field of inquiry I spent many years of study upon the rational aspect of that supreme Reality we call 'God,' and the results of my work are contained in my books, Naturalistische und religidse Weltansicht [1904; E.T., Naturalism and Religion, 1907], and Die Kant-Fries'sche Religions- philosophie [1909; E.T., The Philosophy of Religion Based on Kant and Fries, 19311. And I feel that no one ought to concern himself with the 'Numen ineffabile' who has not already devoted assiduous and serious

study to the 'Ratio aeterna ' (1958:xxi). The truth of these words of Otto is borne out by a survey of his earliest works; yet I must also agree with Bernard E. Meland that the movement from one factor to another is not a simple linear progression. Indeed, it is a great mistake ... to assume that one may move directly from Otto's earlier to his more mature efforts as if his method of 'divination' rested back upon philosophical premises of Kant and Fries. To a considerable degree these influences persist and show through; but Otto was continously restive under the recognition that both Fries and Kant veered off toward Enlightenment tendencies which elevated the rational and formal aspect of religion, tending to make of it one



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universal phenomenon (1965:176f.). In later years, Otto would lift up the pioneering work of Schleiermacher, as the vitalizing alternative to a religion within the limits of reason alone, in his essay, How Schleiermacher Rediscovered the Sensus Numinis (1931a), but Schlei- ermacher, in the period before the appearance of Das Heilige, seems usually to take third chair to Kant and Fries.

The first published work of Otto was his dissertation, which was done during his brief Ritschlian period on Die Anschauung vom heiligen Geiste bei Luther, at Goittingen in 1898. Even then, the element of intuition in Anschauung and the relevance of the Holy Spirit as the

inward presence of God both laid deep bedrock for Otto's later explora- tion of the nature and meaning of religious experience. Moreover, his editorship in 1899 of the centennial edition of Schleiermacher's Reden made a deeper positive impression than Otto himself was to realize until years later./3/ His careful study of the contrasts in the naturalistic- scientific and the religious worldviews also anticipate the later theory of the suprarational status of religious insight. Religion arises from within, and it precedes any critical questions, doctrines, or apologetical consider- ations. The Weltanschauung of religion is not, however, as some rationalist critics would have it, merely an analogue to poetic moods ; rather it lives by the certainty of its own ideas (1907:9f.).

In his encounter with Jacob Friedrich Fries (1773-1843), Otto gained additional ground support in the important concept Ahndung which carries the sense of presentiment and is the kind of intuition that fosters the power of divination, as we shall see in part 2./4/ For a time, it seemed to Otto that Ahndung was a more useful symbol for the means of appropriating the stimuli of the numinous than Schleier- macher's feeling (Gefiihl).

With such an obvious grasp of the rationalist and suprarationalist factors underlying the culture of the last two centuries, it is entirely conceivable that Otto might have turned in either direction, to the virtual exclusion of the other factor. This he clearly did not intend to do, as his replies in later years to the rationalist critics of his position attest. Many explanations have been offered for the turn to the numinous. Of all these, perhaps the theory of Friedrich Heiler-that it was

the tremendous impact of Otto's travels in the Orient that finally tipped the balance-is closest to the mark. During a trip to India, Otto encountered new modes of the symbolic expression of the numinous, and new forms of practical expression of numinous consciousness, in the religious life. Heiler writes: On this trip, he was struck by entirely new intuitions, which lay totally outside the philosophy of religion which had hitherto been his. He had supposed he was about to write a continuation of the Kant-Fries'schen Religionsphilosophie, but it became an entirely new book-Das Heilige (16). It is to a discussion of the central core of the book spawned by this mind-bending trip that I now turn.



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In attempting to lay hold of the distinctively religious element in religious experience (which may be a manifold of numerous other elements, e.g., morality, aesthetics, or duty), Otto faced three obstacles that might have discouraged a lesser scholar.

As his first problem, Otto discovers that the term he needs to use to designate the essential, religious dimension of religious experience - das Heilige ( the Holy ) -has lost its original and primary meaning. Otto needs to recover the primary sense of the Holy, which is now obscured by a secondary meaning that has become the dominant sense in the

minds of his readers. The Holy --spoken of as holiness by the people of Otto's day -has come to designate ethical righteousness, or even moral self-righteousness, as in the familiar phrases holier than thou and unholier than thou. This ethical dimension of the term, however, is a secondary meaning.

To give an initial clue toward the primary meaning that he wishes to recover in his essay Otto explains: While it is complex, it ['the Holy'] contains a quite specific element or 'moment,' which sets it apart from 'the Rational' . . . and which remains inexpressible -an arriton or ineffabile-in the sense that it completely eludes apprehension in terms of concepts (1958:5).

Having laid hold of the primary meaning of the term the Holy,Otto is faced with a second problem. He now needs to account for that

original and primary factor in religious experience-the Holy-that cannot be elucidated by means of rational concepts, as the end of the above quotation indicates. Thus Otto is forced to coin a new term- nu-

minous --to stand for 'the Holy' minus its moral factor or 'moment,' and, as we can now add, minus its 'rational' aspect altogether (1958:6). He coins the word numinous from the Latin numen (cf. ominousfrom omen). The term numinous now indicates the peculiarly religious

overplus of meaning in the concept of the Holy, beyond its moral and rational aspects./5/

Otto is then confronted with a third problem. He must now account for this basic factor-call it the numinous, as the recovered primary meaning of the Holy-when he finds it to be perfectly sui generis and irreducible to any other, and thus not strictly susceptible to meaningful

comparison with other realities. Since the numinous dimension of the Holy eludes meaningful comparisons, Otto admits that the Holy can only be truly understood when there has been an existential experience of it.

He then attempts to describe what it is in the numinous dimension of the Holy that gives it its uniquely religious character. He characterizes this deepest and most fundamental element in all strong and sincerely felt religious emotion by the phrase mysterium tremendum. This new phrase now indicates the object to which the numinous consciousness is directed (1958:25). This is the mystery before which persons trem- ble. In other words, those who are encountered by the Holy have a



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sense of awe before the mystery of a presence and the presence of a mystery, as Joseph Campbell renders Otto's thought on this point (1964:519). An alternative term for the awe, or dread, at the core of religious experience would be creature-feeling -the awesome consciousness of one's creaturely finitude before the Holy.

In this dynamic experience, however, there are two dimensions of mystery which correspond to the ambivalent responses of the religious subject to the Holy: (1) an element of shaking fear or repulsion (mysterium tremendum); (2) an element of powerful attraction or fascina- tion (mysterium fascinans). This element of attraction, unfortunately

never emphasized by Otto's interpreters as much as it deserves to be, forms with the element of repulsion a strange harmony of contrasts,as these words indicate:

The daemonic-divine object may appear to the mind an object of horror and dread, but at the same time it is no less something that allures with a potent charm, and the creature, who trembles before it, utterly cowed and cast down, has always at the same time the impulse to turn to it, nay even to make it somehow his own. The 'mystery' is for him not merely something to be wondered at but something that entrances him; and beside that in it which bewilders and confounds, he feels a something that captivates and transports him with a strange ravishment, rising often enough to the pitch of dizzy intoxication; it is the Dionysiac element in the numen (1958:31).

The careful reader of the contextual introduction to this discussion

of Das Heilige can hardly fail to note one thing: it was precisely in Otto's rigorous studies of the rational side of religion that he was confronted, again and again, by the suprarational dimensions of religious experience. Indeed, it seems unlikely that he would have been moved to write Das Heilige at all unless he had discovered the scope and limits of the rational study of religion in these early works.

Furthermore, it is important to note that Das Heilige was not to be the end result of his study of the numinous factor in religious experience; rather, it was the starting point for such a study that Otto was to pursue during the remainder of his life. In Das Gefihl des Uberweltlichen he explains the process of explicit discussion of the sensus numinis. First,

he merely expanded Das Heilige, in subsequent editions, by adding appendices (some of which, unhappily, have not been translated into English). Next, in 1923, he published Aufsiitze das Numinose betreffend, in twenty-seven chapters, seven of which appeared in English in Reli- gious Essays: A Supplement to The Idea of the Holy in 1931. His third major advance came when the fourth edition of Aufsdtze was divided into two volumes-Das ganz Andere, a series of essays on issues in the history of religions, and Siinde und Urschuld, essays on theological issues. Finally, this first series was greatly expanded and brought out in 1932, as Das Gefiihl des Uberweltlichen (Sensus Numinis), which com- prised his fifth major adaptation of Aufsditze since 1923.



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Two further points need to be made about these companion volumes to Das Heilige. On the one hand, they all examine the sensus

numinis in the various topics of the essays. Often, as in the case of familiar topics such as sin and guilt, the recovery of the numinous dimension liberates these concepts from their degenerative, moralistic representations, and casts them in a new light. On the other hand, the editorial selection for translation into English showed a sound theological and commercial sense for its own day, which was the post-World War I period and the depression. Yet many of the essays that might have great currency for our own day still lie hidden in the German text. As examples of such unmined treasure, I cite the following in their original titles: Mystische and glaiubige Frbmmigkeit (on Sufism and

the Mn6m, Theou ), Das Leere in der Baukunst des Islam, Das Numinose in buddhistischem Bildwerk, and Uber Zazen als Extrem des numinosen Irrationalen. That Otto's insights in these areas have never seen the light of day in English is a sad situation that should be rectified. The discussion in the remainder of this essay will reinforce the need for such translations.

II. Later Thoughts in the Theoretical Sphere

Otto's grasp of the numinous was mediated through many sources, theoretical, symbolic, and practical. Theory elucidated practice, while practice applied theory, expanded it, and grounded it in reality. We have already seen how the religious experience of Indian devotees, in its symbolic and practical dimensions, nudged Otto out of his comfortable, Western mindset. We shall now consider some of the most important

ways in which-with his newly expanded perspective-Otto was to extend his theoretical apprehension of the numinous.

The Dialogue with Schleiermacher

The first idea of concern is the continuation of Otto's earlier dialogue with the thought of Schleiermacher. We recall that only one year after Otto had achieved his licentiate in theology (1898), he had prepared the centennial edition of Schleiermacher's Reden. In the con- frontation with scientific naturalism (1904), Otto had manifested what Meland believes was to become the central vein of Otto's scholarly concern. This was the teleology of the holy as disclosed in numinous experience (1965:170). Luther's words - I believe that God has created me together with all creatures (1907:55) -had awakened in Otto during his student days a sense of creaturely feeling.

This sense of dependence then opened him to Schleiermacher's feeling of absolute dependence, which Otto was able to channel into

the above central vein through the influences of Kant's teleological judgment and Schleiermacher's teleological understanding of the Chris- tian religion (1907:55ff.). During this informative period, as we have



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noted, Otto had also been appreciative of Kant's disciple Jacob Friedrich Fries. Intimations of teleology -confirmed for Otto by these various thinkers-would now be the other side of the coin of creaturely feeling. Intuition of a divine purpose undergirding the world and all that dwells therein would be an assurance that the mysterious numinous presence upon whom one's feeling of creaturely dependence is based has a place and plan for all things. Otto had argued for the legitimacy of religious intuitions of reality, by which he meant the deep impressions, which cannot properly be made commensurable at all, which may spring up directly out of an inward experience, an apprehension of nature, the

world and history, in the depths of the spirit (1907:74f.). Fries had made a place for this region of spiritual experience beside the certain- ties of faith and knowledge and had claimed that the latter were animated by the former. Even so, in Naturalism and Religion, Otto preferred the overall contribution of Schleiermacher to that of Fries. He found Schleiermacher to be

less incisive in his expressions than Fries, but wider in ideas. He includes in this domain of intuitive feeling not only the aesthetic experiences of

the beautiful and sublime, but takes the much more general and comprehensive view, that the mind may gather from the finite impressions of the infinite, and may through its experiences of time gain some conception of the eternal. And he rightly emphasizes that such intuition has its true place in the sphere of mind and in face of the events of history, rather than in the outer court of nature. He, too, lays stress on the fact that doctrinal statements cannot be formulated out of such subtle material (1907:76).

Within five years, however, Otto was to reverse his preference for Schleiermacher as the more original and comprehensive intellect.Thus, in the philosophy of religion, Otto wrote, the points of

contact between Fries and Schleiermacher are less important than their points of difference; and where their views agree, Fries is quite original, and closer study proves him to be superior in comprehensiveness, thoroughness, and solidity (1931b:15). This intellectual jilting of Schlei- ermacher, then, led Otto to additional criticisms. For example, he began to find flaws in the concept of the feeling of absolute dependence.

First of all, he was not convinced that this feeling-which he believed could be occasioned by other domains of life and other regions of experience than the religious -was really dependence at all, as the word has been commonly understood. Instead, it seemed to Otto to be more of a sense of personal insufficiency and impotence, a consciousness of being determined by circumstances and environment. Accord- ingly, Schleiermacher had not isolated his qualitatively different sense of dependence from analogous states of mind. Thus his mistake is in making the distinction merely that between 'absolute' and 'relative' dependence, and therefore a difference of degree and not of intrinsic quality (1958:9).



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The second defect, as Otto saw it, lay in the nature of the experience of absolute dependence itself. This category, he argued, is merely a category of self-valuation, in the sense of self-depreciation. It is self-consciousness, a feeling concerning oneself in a special, determined relation, viz., one's dependence. Therefore, the very fact of God is by way of a causal inference from the nature of this immediate self-consciousness. What Otto was really saying, then, was that Schleier- macher's concept of the feeling of absolute dependence had not allowed him to penetrate to the final layer of religious experience-the presence of God. Thus Otto substituted creature-feeling, in the pres-

ence of the numinous, for Schleiermacher's feeling of absolute dependence. The only way one can determine the character of this mysterious presence is in one's feeling-response to it (1958:10)./6/

I now return to a theme mentioned earlier-"How Schleiermacher

Rediscovered the Sensus Numinis. In this essay, we find Otto much more appreciative of Schleiermacher than in the above criticisms. He acknowledges that-his problems with the outcome of Schleiermacher's position notwithstanding -it was he who chiefly is to be thanked for

rescuing religion from the limits of reason alone. Because he could look at the world through a spiritual eye, Schleiermacher was able to see the infinite shining through the finite and eternity shining through time.

And hereby Schleiermacher not only rediscovered the sensus numinis in a vague and general way but he opened for his age a new door to old and forgotten ideas: to divine marvel instead of supernaturalistic miracle, to living revelation instead of instilled doctrine, to the manifestation of the divinely infinite in event, person, and history, and especially to a new understanding and valuation of biblical history as divine revelation. Without falling back again into the trammels of a primitive supernatural- ism he prepared the way to a rediscovery not only of religion but of Christian religion and to a new interpretation of Christian religion, which was better and more modern than the old orthodoxy or rationalistic theology could give (1931a:77).

Otto now opened this new door, and rediscovered some old and forgotten ideas.

A final stage of the dialogue has to do with Schleiermacher's relation

to mysticism. In Mysticism East and West, Otto had made a probing analysis of the thought of Shankara and Meister Eckhart. In this work he construed mysticism as having manifested itself in two ways,which he called introspection and intuition of Unity. Otto held that

Schleiermacher had placed some emphasis on each of the two ways. In the original Reden (1799) there was the way of the unitive vision, while in the original Glaubenslehre (1821), the system was built on the way of introspection. Otto's final verdict was that "Schleiermacher did not discover the divine in beholding the Universum; he found it within(1960:263). An important by-product is that such a position is a further

argument against pantheism in Schleiermacher's theology.



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We see, then, that Schleiermacher was a catalytic agent in the formulation of Otto's views on religious experience. Let us turn now to another area of investigation, that of translation.

Translation from the Sanskrit

Exactly when Otto gained his knowledge of Sanskrit is uncertain. As early as 1916, however, he had translated the DTpakU; he followed it in 1923 with the Vishnu Nd&ryana and the Siddhdnta of Ramanuja; with numerous hymns and some essays on Varuna (Das Geflihl des Uberwelt-

lichen [19321) and then with three treatises on the Gita (1933-35), which were translated into a single English volume as The Original Gita (1939). He also made translations of some Upanishads and other short works.

The positive response to his efforts is conveyed in the words of Wach: All these studies not only bespeak an intimate acquaintance with the texts and philosophical problems involved in their interpretation, not only a comprehensive knowledge of the theological and

philosophical systems of India and of the outstanding Hindu thinkers and teachers, but also a deep understanding of Indian devotion. In contrast to many German Indologists Otto was attracted not only to the more ancient forms of it, but especially to its medieval expression, which had hitherto hardly been studied in his home country (216).

It should also be emphasized that the study of these texts exposed Otto to the impact of the numinous in these sacred works and that these translations enabled Otto to establish a firm grounding for the volumes that he was about to produce in the field of comparative studies. This field is the next focus of our concern.

Comparative Studies

A scholar of Otto's stature, with the mass of information he possessed about world religions, might have been tempted to settle for a cheaper way of establishing the universality of the numinous as the crucial religious element in experience. After the fashion of Tertullian's

Praescriptio, he might have set up a stereotype of the numinous, marshalled his data, and then ruled any damaging counterevidence out of order before going into court. Yet Otto took the more difficult route. According to him, the numinous does not allow itself to be captured in a human conceptual net. As far as human conceptuality is concerned, the numinous is the wholly other, and whatever the nature of its universality, it does not inhere in a simple uniformity of manifestation in the various religions of the world. Rather, its universality is displayed

in its marvelous ability to manifest itself, with full integrity, to all sorts and conditions of men, and frequently in diverse symbolic forms.



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Two motifs enabled Otto to gain a sense of the presence of the numinous in the major religions of the world. First, there is the power

by which one intuits the numinous presence in any religious experience whatsoever. This is the power of divination, which Otto appropriated from the Ahndung of Fries, and its application to history by DeWette. Divination is, for Otto, the faculty, of whatsoever sort it may be, of genuinely cognizing and recognizing the holy in its appearances(1958:144). In his reading of Fries, Ahndung is just a faculty of

divining the 'objective teleology' of the world (1958:147). In folklore, diviners are said to be able, by means of divining rods, to discover

springs of water that are hidden from the eyes of ordinary, scientificobservers. By analogy, in Otto's adaptation divination is an aesthetic judgment which espies, through the diviner's eye, the purposeful activity of the wholly other God in history. "To this aesthetic comprehension of objective teleology, Otto explains, in nature and in individual phenomena there would correspond a divination of the world as governed by God in history and in the life of the individual(1931b:144). Ahndung is an autonomous intuition, and as such it is a

prereflective cognition of meaning and value, Otto reminds us, akin to what he believes Schleiermacher intended to affirm with his concept of feeling (Gefiihl). Divination, therefore, is not only the power by which one intuits the presence of the numinous, but also the power by which one intuits the purpose of this numinous presence. Thus, Meland was correct in saying that teleology is the central concern of Otto's theology.

The articulation of what one has just divined in such purposeful numinous experiences must be symbolic, because of the distinctive, nonrational nature of the mysterious numinous presence. For Otto, our X cannot, strictly speaking, be taught, it can only be evoked, awakened in the mind; as everything that comes 'of the spirit' must be awakened (1958:7). The symbolic medium for evoking or awaken- ing the X is called an ideogram. It would be a mistake to suppose that an ideogram could be translated into a more accurate, scientific concept; rather the numinous function to be served demands that an ideogram retain its aesthetic status, as symbolic judgment. As Davidson correctly explains, an ideogram may symbolize either a single expression

of one's experience of the numinous presence (as wrath or grace ) or more comprehensive doctrinal formulations of religious experience (the doctrines of predestination or atonement ) -none of which would make sense if subjected to scrutiny solely within the canons of reason (114). Divination, therefore, is Otto's mode of entry into anyone's religious experience, and ideograms are the language of articulation. How, then, does Otto compare the divinations made within world religions?

The second motif is the theory of the convergence of types and parallel forms. As Wach describes it: His theory culminates in the notion of the convergence of types. Examples chosen from various areas



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show convincingly how similar are the expressions which religious experience has created in diverse places, and how parallel forms become in turn qualified by the genius of the individual religion. The task of the historian of religions, requiring much sensitivity, is to weigh carefully both similarities and differences (217). With this approach, Otto could overcome many of the reductionist tendencies in the former discipline of comparative religion. /7/

Otto then applied this corrective method in several comparative contexts, e.g., to the ways of introspection and the ways of unity, in Mysticism East and West; to Bhakti-religion vis-A-vis Christianity, in

Christianity and the Indian Religion of Grace; and to the concept of the wholly other, as the anyad eva of Hinduism and the aliud valde of Augustine, to name the most important ones. The theme of the wholly other is of special importance to this essay.

As Otto holds in Religious Essays, the true divination of the character of the numinous source as the wholly other can only be understood in relation to the two dialectical poles of its symbolic manifestation. At the one pole, there is the dissimilitas Dei, as attested in the Sanskrit phrase neti, neti (the It is not thus, not thus, of the Upanishads), or in the via negativa of the West (the theologia apophatiki or the theologia negativa) -an affirmation in all its diverse forms of the otherness, indeed the qualitative distinctness, of the numinous source. At the other pole, there is the simplicitas Dei, as affirmed in the Ekam eva advitTyam, one only, without duality, or, as Otto would have it, in the I am that I am. Simplicitas symbolizes the unconditioned character, the absoluteness and the uniqueness of the numinous source (1931a:78-94).

One outcome of the encounter with the source is "a blessed silence, as the worshiper is caught up in the pull of the fascinans side of the unspeakable marvel 'before whom words turn back, and whom no understanding comprehends ' (1931a:91). So intense was the impact of this numinous silence that Otto was to make it the culminating point of some of his experimental liturgies, as we shall see.

We turn now to the final area of theoretical concerns.

Issues in Christianity

Even with his breadth of interest in non-Christian religions, Otto never lost interest in the vital issues of the Christian faith, some of which, as we shall soon see, were wedded to some very practical questions. One important area of this concern-the recovery of the numinous dimensions of the concepts of sin and guilt beneath their moralistic accretions-has already been mentioned. In this context, however, we wish to emphasize the specifically christological focus of his later thoughts on the Holy. Otto's last work was The Kingdom of God and the Son of Man: A Study in the History of Religions, which many



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consider his greatest work, after Das Heilige. His unique contribution, from his years of schooling in the Aryan traditions of India and Iran, was his theory of the ultimate source of the concept of the Kingdom of God, which found its way into Jewish apocalyptic and later filtered down to Jesus. In Otto's words:

Jesus was a Jew and descended from Jews. But the late Jewish apocalyptic was not purely Jewish.... Rather, being a late Jewish form, it was inherited from ancient Judaism, but with an intrusive element which came not from that source but from the Chaldean and Iranian east.

Indeed, at first, it had a remoter origin, viz., in ancient Aryan sources, and these prior to the separation of Aryans into Iranians and Indians. The

intrusive element was the great Aryan eschatology of Iran, vitalized by Chaldean features, in particular, as manifested in the doctrinal term, 'the kingdom.' Before 'the kingdom' was a definite technical term in Israel, it was used in this sense among Aryan priests and theologians (1938:14).

If the kingdom is an inherited concept from the ancient Aryans, the next question is The Kingdom of what?

Otto's reply is The Kingdom of Asura, who was the great deity of certain Aryan tribes. The term Asura is supercharged with

numinous meaning: 'Asu-ra' means he who possesses 'asu.' 'Asu' is vital power, the secret power which causes man and beast and gods and every living thing to move and live, to be healthy and sound, and in general to exist. It is numinous force and power. Thus 'Asura' becomes a name for gods and for God (1938:21). An Asura, then, is a Lord God, understood as the ultimate source of numinous power. The Kingdom of Asura found its way into Judaism and then filtered down into Jesus' eschatological preaching. Jesus preached a consistent

eschatology, and was distinguished from John as follows: Both John and Jesus were borne along by the eschatological movement of their time. Nevertheless, Jesus stands in clear contrast to John, who was a preacher of repentance; inwardly he was essentially different, our primary assertion being that Jesus was a charismatic evangelist who was also an exorcist (1938:67).

Of this work, Meland writes: I would place it alongside Schweitzer's The Quest of the Historical Jesus (1910; German edition, 1906) and Bultmann's The Theology of the New Testament (German edition, 1948) as being one of three successive landmarks in the study of the problem of eschatology in recent biblical thought (1965:186). This work, then, was a fitting conclusion to a life devoted to theoretical concerns./8/

III. Later Thoughts in the Practical Sphere

We shall now look briefly at the translation of Otto's theoretical apprehension of the numinous into the practical sphere. We have noted

in several places that the encounter with practical expressions of the numinous, in previously unfamiliar religions, had stimulated Otto toward new theoretical understandings that would be broad enough to



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accommodate these experiences of the numinous. Now he reciprocates by having his expanded theory elucidate practice. The first example to

be considered is his experimentation in liturgical reform. Thus the aim of his liturgical reform was for his theoretical insights to provide a more suitable experiential context for the expression of the numinous.

In Religious Essays there is an essay on a more meaningful celebration of the Lord's Supper and one on a suggested reform of the regular liturgy of corporate worship. As to the former, he wished to overcome various difficulties that undermined the integrity of the service. If it be conceived as a mass, it becomes a sacerdotal sacrifice, with the

congregation staring as detached observers; if it be appended to the regular worship service, its integrity is overshadowed; and if some, and not others, are to partake of the Supper, the unity of the congregation is compromised. Somehow, the Supper must become a service in its own right, with all the congregation involved in the event:

Christ's Eucharist was a meal, and the form and accompaniments of its celebration ought to remind us of this fact. The altar must be and must remind us of a table. Further it was a supper ; therefore the right time for it is not morning but evening, as was the custom in apostolic days. It was a supper, and on a supper-table belong candles. In its original form, in the Jewish Qiddush, the Sabbath candles were in use, and are in use to this very day. Christ undoubtedly had a candle upon his table (1931a:61).

The Supper, therefore, is closer to its original integrity in this service. And once it has been restored, as nearly as possible, to its original context as supper, the presence of the numinous can manifest itself in its original form.

A hallmark of Otto's reform of the liturgy of corporate worship was its culmination in silence, which was the context in which he expected the numinous to be manifested. We have already discussed his view of the blessed character of silence before the wholly other. What we did not mention previously was that the occasion for his appreciation of the sacramental nature of silence was the attendance at a service of worship of the Society of Friends in Boston. There the numinous spoke to him in the silence.

A second practical achievement of Otto's need only be mentioned. At Marburg, where he retired from teaching, Otto established The Religious Collection, consisting of religious symbols, rituals, and apparatus of the religions both of civilized and primitive people, for purposes of inspection, study, and teaching (1931a:157). This collection was to become a living testament to Otto.

Since a great deal has already been said about the mediatory role of symbols and ideograms, the value of a collection of these symbols which

not only have evoked and awakened a sense of the numinous presence in great religions of the world but also have spurred scholars on to the theoretical examination of such experiences should be obvious. Scholars



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now can measure their theoretical apprehensions against these concrete symbolic expressions of the impact of the holy in the lives of different peoples and cultures.

A third area of practical concern was ecumenical and interreligious affairs. On the basis of comparative studies examined above, and the respect he had gained for the similarities and differences among the world's great religions, he began to feel common ground with other peoples and faiths throughout the world. Thus, he offered a plan for An Interreligious League, in which he challenged the devout peoples of all the world faiths to unite against the common problems that comprise the human plight:

If called into being such a league will further the task of education amongst the backward peoples by the more cultured nations whilst fighting their exploitation and subjection. The international problems of the position of women and of labour it will engrave on the conscience of the world. It will strive for a solution to the race question. It will become the advocate of religious, national and social minorities against the force of the existing powers, against the arbitrary victor or the desire for revenge, against oppression and economic slavery, against world banditry and calumniation. It will attempt to direct the cultural exchange between nations, a task of special importance requiring a very sensitive world- conscience (1931a:155f.).

The currency of these items is almost incredible, especially if terror- ism and highjacking are substituted for banditry.

IV. Concluding Reflections

As I indicated at the outset, Otto has played a significant role in the academic study of religion, among readers of English, without ever becoming nearly as well known as he deserved to be. There is reason to believe, however, that the possible impact he may yet make on Ameri- can scholars could be enormous, as I shall indicate below. But first, I shall offer some thoughts as to why his impact has not already been greater.

As the opening quotation showed, one reason for the diminution of Otto's impact-albeit mainly in German-was the overshadowing influence of Barth. Ironically, the young Swiss pastor chose to drop his theological bombshell (the second Ridmerbrief) only four years after the appearance of Das Heilige-just when the older Otto might otherwise have commanded center stage. Moreover, it is true that for a time Barth's students (without his encouragement) were disparaging of Otto's work as a relic of the liberal past. Otto stood his ground. Not only did he keep writing, but he wrote his major comparative studies after Barth had launched his attack on the concept of religion as tantamount to unfaith And even in the shambles of German culture after World War I, and in the wake of the dialectical theology, Otto's major works went into multiple editions and revisions.



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Since Barth's influence was so long in crossing the Atlantic, however, we must look to another factor to explain why Otto did not make a greater impact on the English-speaking world. I refer to the sociopolitical context in which English translations of Otto's later works were read. Although it is true that there are far more of his works in English than is commonly known, he did not fare as well in moving most of these works into the forefront of discussion in England and America. In America, for example, the sociopolitical context was the Depression with its bread lines, massive unemployment, and general social unrest, not to mention a residue of anti-German sentiment. In this setting, it is

understandable that attention would be diverted from sophisticated academic issues to those having a more immediate, existential impact. Thus, it was a period in which American theology, in its theoretical dimensions, had plummeted to a new low point./9/

Because most of Otto's theoretical works fell into the category of comparative studies (involving religions that seemed exotic by ordinary standards), one can understand why English editors chose judi- ciously those works of Otto that were closest to the mainstream of

traditional Judaeo-Christian faith. Conversely, in our day it is these untranslated comparative works (see the list on pp. 383-84) which de- serve a reading. Those few comparative works that did see the light of day in English soon passed out of print and lie languishing in the stacks of university libraries, largely beyond the concern of American scholars./10/

The time is now ripe for a reconsideration of Otto's importance to American scholars. We are now prepared to deal with most of the issues that he wrote about long before they were real to other scholars. In a sense, we have been prepared for such a resurgence by Tillich, Wach, and other foreign imports who had already been deeply influenced by Otto (as they proudly acknowledged) before setting foot on these shores. In their teaching, they have passed some of his intellectual legacy on to us, sowing seeds that should be made to germinate in our day.

For several practical reasons, then, I hope that the greater part of Otto's untranslated works may find their way into English and that

reprints (or perhaps even revisions) or some earlier translations may be forthcoming:

1. Because of his consistent posing of fundamental issues and his persistent effort to be fair, Otto's thought is a good place to take hold of an issue. (Whether one ends up where he did is another matter.)

2. Otto's methodology will yield useful criticisms of the unfortunate practices of the past. Since he usually makes an advance on what he criticizes, his thought can then be subjected to our own evaluation, with

the appropriation of whatever proves useful. Even his errors (which, to me, do not seem to be numerous) are instructive.



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3. His practical focus, even when treating theoretical issues, can be a challenge to us all to produce nourishing fruit from our own theoretical

reflections. I hope, therefore, to be joined by many other scholars in the

attempt to reappropriate Otto's legacy for our time.

NOTES

/1/ I am pleased to acknowledge a debt of gratitude to several publishers, for permission to quote from their works. Passages from Rudolf Otto's works, The Idea of the Holy, 2nd ed., trans. John W. Harvey (1950), and Religious Essays, trans. Brian Lunn (1931), are quoted by permission of Oxford Universi- ty Press; from Joachim Wach, Types of Religious Experience (1951), by permission of the University of Chicago Press; from Dean G. Peerman and Martin E. Marty, eds., A Handbook of Christian Theologians (1965), by permission of the World Publishing Co.; from John M. Moore, Theories of Religious Experience (1938), by permission of Round Table Press and from Rudolf Otto, The King-

dom of God and the Son of Man, trans. Floyd V. Filson and Bertram Lee-Woolf (1938), by permission of Lutterworth Press.

/2/ Undergirding this judgment is an extensive survey of English and American theological journals during the period of Otto's writings, revealing shockingly little discussion, or review, of his works.

/3/ Many of the themes of this section will be discussed in more detail, in part 2.

/4/ Although their meanings differ considerably in ordinary German par- lance, the terms Ahnung (ordinarily presentiment, foreboding, or premo- nition ) and Ahndung (usually retribution, punishment, or revenge ) are used by Otto with apparently the same meaning of presentiment. Confusion notwithstanding, Ahndung is preferable, because it was the choice of Fries and most of his interpreters and the final choice of Otto. Although he first used Ahnung in the work on Kant and Fries, Otto used Ahndung (and ahnden) in Das

Heilige. In addition to presentiment and prescient intimation, Ahndung carries such numinous overtones as inkling, surmise, and presage(1958:146-47).

/5/ The power of a numen seems to be such as to evoke an instinctive, involuntary gesture of subordination, such as genuflection or prostration.

/6/ Since the main concern is to extend the acquaintance with Otto beyond

his most familiar works in English, it is not my purpose in this essay to offer extensive criticisms of his approach. Were such my intention, I should voice serious misgivings in two areas-about some of these negative conclusions



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concerning Schleiermacher's feeling of absolute dependence and about his underlying Protestant bias in comparative religion (see n.7).

/7/ The contribution of Otto to comparative religions is so substantial that any criticism of his efforts comes forth only with great tribulation. As Wach reminds us, a basic principle is that the comparisons must lay bare the diferences as well as the similarities between religions, without glossing over any points of friction. Few in Otto's day could rival him either in the thoroughness of his investigation or in his affinity for lifting up the strengths to be found in the various non-Christian religions. Nevertheless, he found it difficult to rise above a Protestant bias (albeit a very enlightened and sophisticated one), when final comparisons were being made. For example, the last line of one such study reads as follows: India knows of a saviour, but not of an atoner (1929:59). After going to great pains to establish that the Bhakti traditions offer a religion of saving grace rivaling Christianity, Otto awards first prize to Christianity because its savior is himself the medium of atonement for the sins of the world. Yet the resort to atonement as the definitive mode of salvation does not find rigorous logical justification in terms of the way the problem was originally posed. Otto's investigations -short of his conclusions-are often highly instructive. When we begin to form conclusions, however, as to whether Christianity, or any world faith for that matter, is, or could be, the terminus ad quem of the religions, we may wish to move beyond Otto to consider the contributions of Ernst Troeltsch, H. Richard Niebuhr, Wilfred Cantwell Smith, and Fritjof Schuon.

/8/ So far as I can determine, no scholar has ever evaluated this work on Otto's home ground. To do so would require facility not only in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, but also ancient Aryan tongues. Thus far, the only

reviewers I have been able to turn up are New Testament scholars, who seldom stray beyond their usual disciplinary concerns.

/9/ In the last decade of his life, Otto was able to speak to some of the pressing sociopolitical issues in England and America by way of The Hibbert Journal, but this medium did not yield a really sizable audience. In America, journals and books were mainly devoted to similar crucial issues of the day. One of the most notable cases concerned the outcry of churchmen against the denial of U.S. citizenship to the Canadian theologian D. C. MacIntosh. Otto was thus a victim of American preoccupation with much more pressing issues.

/10/ Students of Otto such as Bernard E. Meland, John M. Moore, and Robert F. Davidson were notable exceptions.



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WORKS CONSULTED

Campbell, C. A. 1957 On Selfhood and Godhood. London: George Allen and

Unwin.

Campbell, Joseph 1964 The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology. New York:

Viking Press.

Davidson, Robert F. 1947 Rudolf Otto's Interpretation of Religion. Princeton:

Princeton University Press.

Heiler, Friedrich 1951 "Die Bedeutung Rudolf Ottos ffir die vergleichende

Religionsgeschichte. Religionswissenschaft in neuer

Sicht. Marburg.

Meland, Bernard E. 1934 Modern Man's Worship: A Search for Reality in Reli-

gion. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1965 "Rudolf Otto." A Handbook of Christian Theologians.

Eds. Martin E. Marty and Dean G. Peerman. Cleve- land: World Publishing Co.

Moore, John M. 1938 Theories of Religious Experience with Special Reference

to James, Otto and Bergson. New York: Round Table Press.

Oman John 1931 The Natural and the Supernatural. Cambridge, Eng-

land: At the University Press.

Otto, [Karl Ludwig] Rudolf 898 Die Anschauung vom heiligen Geist bei Luther: eine

historisch-dogmatisch Untersuchung. Gtittingen: Van- denhtick und Ruprecht.

1907 Naturalism and Religion. Trans. J. Arthur Thomas and Margaret D. Thomson. New York: G. P. Putnam.

1908 The Life and Ministry of Jesus according to the Histori- cal and Critical Method. Trans. H. J. Whitby. Chicago: The Open Court.



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1917 Das Heilige: Uber das Irrationale in der Idee des G6tt- lichen und sein Verhdltnis zum Rationalen. Breslau.

1923 Aufsditze das Numinose betreffend. Stuttgart: Verlag Andreas Perthes A.-G. 1929 Christianity and the Indian Religion of Grace. Trans. H.

Bjerrum. Madras: Christian Literary Society for India. 1931a Religious Essays: A Supplement to "The Idea of the

Holy. Trans. Brian Lunn. London: Oxford Universi- ty Press.

1931 lb The Philosophy of Religion Based on Kant and Fries. Trans. E. B. Dicker. New York: Richard R. Smith.

1932a Siinde und Urschuld, und andere Aufsdtze zur Theologie. Miinchen: C. H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 1932b Das Gefuhl des Uberweltlichen (Sensus Numinis). Miin-

chen: C. H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 1938 The Kingdom of God and the Son of Man: A Study in

the History of Religion. Trans. Floyd V. Filson and Bertram Lee-Woolf. London: Lutterworth Press.

1939 The Original Gita: The Song of the Supreme Exalted One. Trans. J. E. Turner. London: George Allen and

Unwin. 1958 The Idea of the Holy: An Inquiry into the Non-Rational Factor in the Idea of the Divine and Its Relation to the Rational. Trans. John W. Harvey. New York: Oxford University Press.

1960 Mysticism East and West: A Comparative Analysis of the Nature of Mysticism. Trans. Bertha L. Bracey and Richenda C. Payne. New York: Macmillan.

Wach, Joachim 1951 Types of Religious Experience Christian and Non-Chris-

tian. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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