Stuart Sarbacker

Rudolf Otto and the Concept of the Numinous

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion August 31, 2016 Stuart Sarbacker

Rudolf Otto's concept of the "numinous," developed in his 1923 work The Idea of the Holy, describes the non-rational aspects of religious experience—a mysterious terror and awe (Mysterium tremendum et fascinans) and majesty in the presence of that which is "entirely other" and inexpressible through language. Otto argued that understanding the numinous requires drawing on one's own religious sentiments, a point later contested by secular scholars. His theory influenced Carl Jung, Mircea Eliade, and Ninian Smart, shaping the academic study of religion. Eliade's concept of the sacred derived from Otto's "holy," while Smart applied the numinous in his dimensional analysis and two-pole theory of religious experience. The term has entered common English usage.