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Rudolf Otto: The Context of His Thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

Philip Almond
Affiliation:
Dept. of Studies in Religion, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia 4067

Extract

In Otto's mature philosophy of religion, as presented in Das Heilige, religions are viewed as consisting of both rational and non-rational elements. While religions have to do with theoretical and moral ideas, they are nonetheless not finally dependent on these. Rather, these rational components are ultimately referable to an object or ‘subject’ that can only be apprehended in a non-rational ‘unique original feeling-response’ that is the innermost core of all religions. The analysis of this non-rational numinous core of religion, and of its connection to religion's rational factors, is the overall aim of Das Heilige, indeed of Otto's work as a whole.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1983

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References

page 347 note 1 Otto, R., Das Heilige (Breslau: Trewendt und Granier, 1917). English translation: The Idea of the Holy (Oxford University Press, 1958).Google Scholar

page 347 note 2 See The Idea of the Holy, p. 1.

page 347 note 3 R. Otto, notes on the English translation of Kantisch-Fries'sche Religionsphilosophie, Schütte, H. W., Religion und Christenlum in der Theologie Rudolf Ottos (Berlin: de Gruyter & Co., 1969), p. 123. See also The Idea of the Holy, p. xxi.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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page 349 note 8 ibid., p. 48.

page 349 note 9 ibid., p. 53.

page 349 note 10 ibid., p. 96.

page 350 note 11 Ritschl, A., Geschichte des Pietismus (Bonn: Adolph Marcus, 1886), vol. 3, pp. 195438.Google Scholar

page 350 note 12 See, for example, Otto's ‘Epilogue’ to Schleiermacher, F. D. E., Uber die Religion (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1899), p. xxxii.Google Scholar

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page 350 note 14 In his review of Otto's The Philosophy of Religion, Wilhelm Bousset remarks that Otto ought to have made more of the connection of Fries to Moravian pietism. He goes on to say that Fries's second wife was a member of the Brethren, and his sisters also. See Theologische Rundschau, vol. 12,1909, p. 424.

page 350 note 15 Uttendörfer, O., ‘Die Entwiirfe Zinzendorfs zu seiner Religionschrift’, in Zeitschrift für Brüdergeschichte, vol. 13, 1919, pp. 6498.Google Scholar

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page 351 note 17 Uttendörfer, op. cit., p. 73; cf. The Idea of the Holy, p. 113.

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page 351 note 19 ibid., pp. 5–6.

page 352 note 20 ibid., p p. 9–10; see also Sünde und Urschuld, p. 139.

page 352 note 21 Religious Essays, pp. 68–9.

page 352 note 22 Schleiermacher, F. D. E., On Religion (New York: Harper and Row, 1958), p. 48; The Idea of the Holy pp. 146, 171–2.Google Scholar

page 353 note 23 Schleiermacher, op. cit., p. 217; see also Sünde und Urschuld p. 135.

page 353 note 24 See Religious Essays, p. 112.

page 353 note 25 See Schleiermacher, op. cit., pp. 2416ff; ‘Epilogue’ to Uberdie Religion, pp. xxxi-xxxü; and The Idea of the Holy, pp. 177–8.

page 353 note 26 See ‘Introduction’ to Schleiermacher, op. cit., p. xix; see also ‘Epilogue’ to Uber die Religion, pp. xxxii;-xxxiii.

page 353 note 27 ‘Epilogue’ to Uber die Religion, pp. xxiii, xxix.

page 354 note 28 See ‘Introduction’ to Schleiermacher, op. cit., p. xix.

page 354 note 29 See ibid., p. xii; see also The Philosophy of Religion, p. 23.

page 354 note 30 See Otto, R., Naturalism and Religion (London: Williams & Norgate, 1907), p. 76.Google Scholar

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page 355 note 35 Schütte, op. cit., p. 123.

page 355 note 36 The Idea of the Holy p. 5.

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page 356 note 38 See Seifert, P., Die Religionsphilosophie bei Rudolf Otto (Düsseldorf: G. H. Nolte Verlag, 1936), pp. 2426Google Scholar; and Paus, A., Religioser Erkenntnisgrund: Herkunft und Wesen der Apriori Theorie Rudolf Ottos (Leiden: Brill, 1966), p. 114.Google Scholar

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page 356 note 41 ibid., p. 326.

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page 357 note 44 Otto, R., ‘Parallelen und Wertunterschiede im Christentum und Buddatum’, Rudolf Otto Archive, University of Marburg, 351.Google Scholar

page 358 note 45 Hastings, op. cit., p. 732.

page 358 note 46 Otto, R., review of Gudstrons uppkommst in Theologische Literaturzeitung, vol. 40, 1915, p. 4Google Scholar; see also The Idea of the Holy, pp. 74–5.

page 358 note 47 The Idea of the Holy, p. 15, n.i: see also Otto, R., ‘The Sensus Numinis as the Historical Basis of Religion’, in The Hibbert Journal, vol. 30, 19311932, p. 427.Google Scholar

page 359 note 48 Otto, R., ‘Mythus und Religion in Wundt's Völkerpsychologie’, in Theologische Rundschau, vol. 13, 1910, p. 301. Otto's first use of the term ‘numen’ is in Die Anschauung vom Heiligen Geiste bet Luther, pp. 99–100.Google Scholar

page 359 note 49 ibid., p. 303.

page 359 note 50 ibid., pp. 304–5.

page 359 note 51 ibid., p. 297.

page 360 note 52 ibid., p. 304.

page 360 note 53 ‘Epilogue’ to Uber die Religion, p. xxix.

page 360 note 54 ‘Parallelen und Wertunterschiede im Christentum und Buddatum’, Rudolf Otto Archive, University of Marburg, 351.

page 360 note 55 Otto, R., ‘Parallelisms in the Development of Religion East and West’, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. 40, 1912, p. 158.Google Scholar

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page 361 note 60 Paus, A., Religiöser Erkenntnisgrund: Herkunft und Wesen der Aprioritheorie Rudolf Ottos (Leiden: Brill, 1966), p. 135.Google Scholar

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