The Idea of the Holy: An Inquiry into the Non-Rational Factor in the Idea of the Divine and Its Relation to the Rational by Rudolf Otto
$125.00
The Idea of the Holy: An Inquiry into the Non-Rational Factor in the Idea of the Divine and Its Relation to the Rational by Rudolf Otto. Translated by John W. Harvey. Published in 1923 by Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press. A landmark work in the philosophy of religion and comparative theology, in which Otto develops his influential concept of the numinous to describe the irreducible, non-rational experience of the sacred. Rejecting purely ethical or intellectual definitions of religion, he argues that encounters with the divine are characterized by a distinctive mode of consciousness that precedes doctrinal formulation. Through chapters including “The Elements of the Numinous Creature-Feeling,” Mysterium Tremendum, “The Element of Overpoweringness,” “The Analysis of Mysterium,” and “The Earliest Manifestations,” Otto examines the psychological, phenomenological, and historical dimensions of religious experience across cultures and traditions. His formulation of the mysterium tremendum et fascinans profoundly influenced twentieth-century theology, comparative religion, philosophy, psychology, and the academic study of mysticism, becoming one of the foundational texts for understanding humanity’s encounter with the sacred. Hardcover. Gilt lettering to spine and light shelfwear.
