Rudolph Otto's theory of religious experience in The Idea of the Holy : A study in the phenomenology and philosophy of religion
This essay seeks to chart a largely unexplored psychology of religious experience in The Idea of the Holy, which is directly related to Otto's claim that one of the most important functions of discourse about religious experience is to evoke numinous feelings in a religiously sensitive audience. It will be demonstrated that Otto's concepts of schematization of the numinous, the numinous and the rational a priori, and divination cannot be understood by phenomenologists and philosophers of religion except in the light of this claim, and that Otto intends that his concept of schematization (profoundly influenced by Fries's transcendental idealism) be identified with his law of association of analogous feelings which explains how the excitation of numinous experience is produced. Moreover, this theory of religious experience rests upon an assumption about the relationship between religious language and experience which requires elucidation and evaluation. Otto's claims about numinous experience being inexpressible and yet, paradoxically, made intelligible through the use of analogy will be critically examined in the light of recent philosophical discussion concerning the relationship between all language and experience,
Schlamm, L. P.
Otto, R. - religious theory
Rudolph Otto's theory of religious experience in The Idea of the Holy : A study in the phenomenology and philosophy of religion. This essay seeks to chart a largely unexplored psychology of religious experience in The Idea of the Holy, which is directly related to Otto's claim that one of the most important functions of discourse about religious experience is to evoke numinous feelings in a religiously sensitive audience. It will be demonstrated that Otto's concepts of schematization of the numinous, the numinous and the rational a priori, and divination cannot be understood by phenomenologists and philosophers of religion except in the light of this claim, and that Otto intends that his concept of schematization (profoundly influenced by Fries's transcendental idealism) be identified with his law of association of analogous feelings which explains how the excitation of numinous experience is produced. Moreover, this theory of religious experience rests upon an assumption about the relationship between religious language and experience which requires elucidation and evaluation. Otto's claims about numinous experience being inexpressible and yet, paradoxically, made intelligible through the use of analogy will be critically examined in the light of recent philosophical discussion concerning the relationship between all language and experience,
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