Article contents
Rudolf Otto: The Context of His Thought
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
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
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1983
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
page 348 note 4 See Otto, R., The Philosophy of Religion (London: Williams & Norgate, 1931), p. 229.Google Scholar
page 348 note 5 On Luther and the mystical tradition, see The Idea of the Holy, pp. 104–7; Otto, R., ‘Mystische und gläubige Frömmigkeit’, in Aufsälze das Numinose betrtffend (Stuttgart/Gotha: Verlag Friedrich Andreas Perthes A. G., 1923), pp. 71–107Google Scholar; Otto, R., ‘Rettung aus Verlorenheit nach Luther. Justificatio per Fidem’, in Sünde und Urschuld (Mūnchen: C. H. Beck, 1932), pp. 43–60.Google Scholar
page 349 note 6 The Idea of the Holy, pp. 99–100; see also pp. 23–4.
page 349 note 7 Otto, R., Die Anschauung vom Heiligen Geiste bei Luther (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1898), p. 15.Google Scholar
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. 195–438.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
page 350 note 13 Otto, R., review of Leonard Nelson's edition of Fries, J., Wissen, Glaube und Ahndung (Gōttingen: Öffentliches Leben, 1905), in Die Christliche Welt, vol. 22, 1908, p. 819.Google Scholar
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. 64–98.Google Scholar
page 350 note 16 Aufsätze das Numinose betreffend, pp. 51–5.
page 351 note 17 Uttendörfer, op. cit., p. 73; cf. The Idea of the Holy, p. 113.
page 351 note 18 Otto, R., ‘Zinzendorf als Entdecker des Sensus Numinis’, in Das Gefuhl des Oberweltlicken (Sensus Numinis) (München: C. H. Beck, 1932), pp. 4–10Google Scholar. A revised version of an earlier article on Schleiermacher entitled ‘Wie Schleiermacher die Religion wiederentdeckte’, in Die Christliche Welt, vol. 17, 1903, pp. 506–512Google Scholar (English translation, ‘How Schleiermacher Re-discovered the Sensus Numinis’, in Otto, R., Religious Essays (London: Oxford University Press, 1931), pp. 68–77)Google Scholar, appears later in Otto, R., Sünde und Urschuld (München: C. H. Beck, 1932), pp. 132–139Google Scholar under the less emphatic title ‘Der neue Aufbruch des Sensus Numinis bei Schleiermacher’.
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
page 354 note 31 The Philosophy of Religion p. 15.
page 354 note 32 ibid., p. 23.
page 355 note 33 See especially, Fries, J., Wissen, Glaube und Ahndung (Gottingen: Öffentliches Leben, 1905).Google Scholar
page 355 note 34 ‘Rudolf Otto and the Kantian Tradition’ in Zeitschrift fur Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie (forthcoming). See also Bastow, D., ‘Otto and Numinous Experience’, in Religious Studies, vol. 12, 1976, p. 165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
page 355 note 35 Schütte, op. cit., p. 123.
page 355 note 36 The Idea of the Holy p. 5.
page 356 note 37 See Ritter, J. (ed.), Historisches Worterbuch der Philosophic (Basel/Stuttgart: Schwabe & Co., 1974), vol. 3, pp. 1034–1037.Google Scholar
page 356 note 38 See Seifert, P., Die Religionsphilosophie bei Rudolf Otto (Düsseldorf: G. H. Nolte Verlag, 1936), pp. 24–26Google Scholar; and Paus, A., Religioser Erkenntnisgrund: Herkunft und Wesen der Apriori Theorie Rudolf Ottos (Leiden: Brill, 1966), p. 114.Google Scholar
page 356 note 39 See, for example, Davidson, R. F., Rudolf Otto's Interpretation of Religion (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1947)Google Scholar; Paus, op. cit., p. III, n. 7g; Troeltsch, E., ‘Zur Religionsphilosophie’, in Kant-Sludien, vol. 23, 1919, p. 65.Google Scholar
page 356 note 40 The essay appears in the chapter entitled ‘Religious Problems’ in Windelband, W., An Introduction to Philosophy (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1921).Google Scholar
page 356 note 41 ibid., p. 326.
page 357 note 42 Söderblom, N., Gudstrons uppkommst (Stockholm: H. Geber, 1914)Google Scholar; Das Werden des Gottesglaubens (Leipzig: R. Stübe, 1916).Google Scholar
page 357 note 43 Hastings, J. (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1913), vol. 6, p. 731.Google Scholar
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, 1931–1932, 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
page 360 note 56 Otto, R., ‘Parallelen der Religionsentwicklung’, Frankfurter Zeitung, March 31st, and April 1 st, 1913, p. 4.Google Scholar
page 360 note 57 Troeltsch, E. ‘Der Selbständigkeit der Religion’, Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche vol. 5, 1895, p. 361.Google Scholar
page 361 note 58 See especially, ‘Zur Frage des religiosen Apriori’, Gesammelte Schriften (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1913), vol. 2, pp. 754–768.Google Scholar
page 361 note 59 The Philosophy of Religion p. 18.
page 361 note 60 Paus, A., Religiöser Erkenntnisgrund: Herkunft und Wesen der Aprioritheorie Rudolf Ottos (Leiden: Brill, 1966), p. 135.Google Scholar
page 361 note 61 See Clayton, J. ‘Can Theology be both Cultural and Christian?’ Patterson, B. E. (ed.), Science, Faith and Revelation (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1979), pp. gif.Google Scholar
page 362 note 62 Troeltsch, E., ‘Zur Religionsphilosophie’, Kant-Studien, vol. 23, 1919, p. 70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 1
- Cited by