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Douglas Allen, "Phenomemonology of Religion," The Routledge Companion To The Study of Religion, Edited by John R. Hinnels (Routledge, London: 2005)

Rudolf Otto made two important methodological contributions with his experiential approach to phenomenologically describing the universal structures of religious experience, and his antireductionism which respects religious experiences as unique and irreducible. In his work The Idea of the Holy, Otto describes the numinous element as the non-rational, non-moral essence of religious experience. Since such experiences cannot be defined conceptually, they can only be evoked symbolically. Otto formulated a phenomenological structure of religious experience centered around our innate sense of the numinous. He argued religious experiences are autonomous and cannot be reduced to interpretations from fields like psychology, anthropology or history. However, critics argue Otto's approach focuses too narrowly on certain extreme experiences and

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179 views1 page

Douglas Allen, "Phenomemonology of Religion," The Routledge Companion To The Study of Religion, Edited by John R. Hinnels (Routledge, London: 2005)

Rudolf Otto made two important methodological contributions with his experiential approach to phenomenologically describing the universal structures of religious experience, and his antireductionism which respects religious experiences as unique and irreducible. In his work The Idea of the Holy, Otto describes the numinous element as the non-rational, non-moral essence of religious experience. Since such experiences cannot be defined conceptually, they can only be evoked symbolically. Otto formulated a phenomenological structure of religious experience centered around our innate sense of the numinous. He argued religious experiences are autonomous and cannot be reduced to interpretations from fields like psychology, anthropology or history. However, critics argue Otto's approach focuses too narrowly on certain extreme experiences and

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Rudolf Otto: The two interdepend methodological contributions made by Rudolf Otto (1869-

1937) deserve emphasis his experiential approach, which involves the phenomenological
description of the universal, essential structures of religious experience, and his
antireductionism, which respect the unique, irreducible, ‘numinous quality of all religious
experience. In Das Heilige (translated as The Idea of the Holy), Otto presents what is probably
the best known phenomenological account of religious experience. Otto describes the universal
‘numinous’ element as a unique a prior category of meaning and value. By numen and
‘numinous’, Otto means the concept of ‘the holy’ minus its minus its normal and rational
aspects. By emphasizing this nonmoral, non-rational and conceptual. This constitute the
universal essence of religious experience. Since such unique nonrational experience cannot be
defined or conceptualized, symbolic and analogical descriptions are meant to evoke within the
reader the experience of the holy. The religious experience of the numinous, as a priori structure
of consciousness, can be reawakened or recognized by means of our innate sense of the
numinous
In this regard, Otto formulates a universal phenomenological structure of religious experience
in which the phenomenological can be distinguish autonomous religious phenomena by their
numinous aspect and can organize and analyse specific religious manifestations. He points to
our ‘creature feeling’ of absolute dependence in the experiential presence of the holy. The sui
generis religious experienced is described as riential presence of the ‘wholly other’ that is
qualitative unique and transcendent.
This insistence on the unique a prior quality of religious experience points to Otto’s
antireductionism. Otto rejects the one-sidedly intellectual and rationalistic bias of the most
interpretations and the reduction of religious phenomena to the interpretive schema of linguistic
analysis, anthropology, sociology, psychology and various historicist approach. This emphasis
on the autonomy of religion, with the need for unique, autonomous approach that is
commensurate with interpreting the meaning of irreducibly religious phenomena, is generally
accepted by major phenomenologist of religion
Various interpreters have criticized Otto’s phenomenological approach for being too narrowly
conceived. According to these critic, Otto’s approach focus on nonrational aspects of certain
mystical and other extreme experiences, but it is not sufficiently concerned with the specific
historical and cultural forms of religious phenomena. Critics also object to the priori nature of
Otto’s project and influences of personal, Christian, theological and apologetic intentions on
his phenomenology.1

1
Douglas Allen, “Phenomemonology of Religion,” The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion, edited
by John R. Hinnels (Routledge, London: 2005),

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