Rudolf Otto facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Rudolf Otto
Born	(1869-09-25)25 September 1869 Peine, North German Confederation
Died	6 March 1937(1937-03-06) (aged 67) Marburg, Germany
Alma mater	University of Erlangen University of Göttingen
Notable work	The Idea of the Holy
Scientific career
Influences	Friedrich Schleiermacher, Immanuel Kant, Jakob Fries
Influenced	Eliade, Jung, Campbell, C. S. Lewis, Tillich, Barth, Rahner, Heidegger, Wach, Horkheimer, Gadamer, Strauss

Rudolf Otto (born September 25, 1869 – died March 6, 1937) was an important German Lutheran thinker. He was a theologian (someone who studies God and religious beliefs), a philosopher (someone who studies basic ideas about knowledge, reality, and values), and a comparative religionist (someone who compares different religions).

Many people see him as one of the most important scholars of religion in the early 1900s. He is most famous for his idea of the numinous. This is a deep, powerful feeling he believed was at the heart of all religions around the world. Otto's work aimed to defend religion against ideas that tried to explain everything using only science or nature. He saw his work as part of a "science of religion." This included the philosophy of religion, the history of religion, and the psychology of religion.

Rudolf Otto's Life Story

Rudolf Otto was born in Peine, a town near Hanover, Germany. He grew up in a Christian family that was very religious. He went to school at the Gymnasium Andreanum in Hildesheim. Later, he studied at the Universities of Erlangen and Göttingen.

At Göttingen, he wrote his main research papers. One was about Martin Luther's ideas on the Holy Spirit. The other was about the philosopher Immanuel Kant. By 1906, he became a professor. In 1910, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Giessen.

Travels and Political Work

Otto became very interested in religions outside of Christianity after a long trip. From 1911 to 1912, he traveled through North Africa, Palestine, British India, China, Japan, and the United States. He said that visiting a Moroccan synagogue in 1911 greatly inspired his later ideas about "the Holy."

In 1913, Otto became a member of the Prussian parliament. He kept this job through World War I. In 1917, he worked to make the voting system in Prussia simpler. After the war, he served in the assembly that created the new government in 1918. He stayed involved in the politics of the Weimar Republic.

University Career and Later Years

In 1915, Otto became a full professor at the University of Breslau. Then, in 1917, he moved to the University of Marburg's Divinity School. This school was one of the most famous Protestant seminaries (religious schools) in the world. Even though he was offered jobs at other universities, he stayed in Marburg for the rest of his life.

He retired in 1929 but kept writing books and articles. Rudolf Otto passed away on March 6, 1937, from pneumonia. This happened after he was seriously hurt in a fall from a tower in October 1936. He is buried in the Marburg cemetery.

Rudolf Otto's Main Ideas

Early Influences on His Thinking

When he was younger, Otto was most influenced by Friedrich Schleiermacher. Schleiermacher was a German idealist (a philosopher who believes reality is based on ideas). He thought that religious feelings were a special kind of emotion. This emotion could not be explained by just ethics or logic. Otto felt that Schleiermacher helped bring back a sense of holiness that had been lost.

Schleiermacher described this religious feeling as "absolute dependence." However, Otto later disagreed with this. He felt it was too much like how we depend on things in everyday life. Otto wanted to show that religious feelings were completely different from anything in the normal world. In 1904, while studying at the University of Göttingen, Otto also became a supporter of the philosophy of Jakob Fries.

First Books and Their Focus

Otto's first book, Naturalism and Religion (1904), talked about two main parts of the world: the mental and the physical. This idea is similar to Cartesian dualism, which says the mind and body are separate. Otto argued that our consciousness (our awareness) cannot be explained by just physical things like brain processes. He also said that all our knowledge of the physical world comes from our personal experiences.

However, Otto disagreed with Descartes (another philosopher) who said the mental world was only about logic. Otto believed that logic is built on a non-logical, intuitive part of our minds.

In 1909, he published The Philosophy of Religion Based on Kant and Fries. In this book, he looked at the ideas of Kant and Fries. From their work, he tried to create a way to understand how religious experiences happen. Kant believed that thinking happened in a logical way. Fries added that thinking also happened in practical and artistic ways. Otto took Fries' idea further and suggested another non-logical way of thinking: the religious way. He thought intuition was useful in logical areas like math. But he felt religious intuitions might not be corrected by logic in the same way.

These first two books focused on the logical parts of God. Otto said his next book would focus on the non-logical parts of the divine.

The Idea of the Holy: His Most Famous Work

Otto's most famous book is The Idea of the Holy. It was one of the most successful German religious books of the 20th century. It has never stopped being printed and is available in about 20 languages. The main idea of the book is about the term numinous, which Otto created.

He explained the numinous as a "non-rational, non-sensory experience or feeling." This feeling's main focus is outside of oneself. This mental state "presents itself as ganz Andere (wholly other)." This means it is completely unique and cannot be compared to anything else. When people experience it, they feel completely amazed and humbled.

According to Mark Wynn, Otto believed that religious experiences are real and have their own meaning. They are not just an internal reaction to believing in God. Otto felt that people should first study God in a logical way. Then, they could explore the non-logical part of God, which he wrote about in this book.

Later Writings

In Mysticism East and West, published in German in 1926, Otto compared different spiritual ideas. He looked at the views of the medieval German Christian mystic Meister Eckhart. He also compared them to the ideas of the important Hindu philosopher Adi Shankara. Shankara was a key figure in the Advaita Vedanta school of thought.

Rudolf Otto's Impact

Otto had a wide influence on theology (the study of religious faith), religious studies, and the philosophy of religion. His ideas are still important today.

Impact on Christian Theology

Karl Barth, an important Protestant theologian who lived at the same time as Otto, said Otto influenced him. Barth also believed in a similar idea of God as ganz Andere (wholly other). This fits into a tradition called apophatic theology, which describes God by saying what God is not.

C. S. Lewis, a famous writer, also said he learned from Otto. He especially liked the idea of the numinous in his book The Problem of Pain. German-American theologian Paul Tillich also said Otto influenced him. Otto's ideas can also be seen in the work of the Catholic theologian Karl Rahner. More recently, Otto has influenced the American Franciscan friar and speaker Richard Rohr.

Influence Beyond Christianity

Otto's ideas have also affected non-Christian theology and spirituality. Orthodox Jewish theologians like Joseph Soloveitchik have discussed them. The Iranian-American Sufi scholar Reza Aslan believes religion is a system of symbols and stories. These help a community share their "numinous encounter with the Divine Presence." Even Mohandas Gandhi, the leader of India's independence movement, praised Otto's work.

Impact on Religious Studies

In The Idea of the Holy and other books, Otto created a new way to study religion. He stressed that religion should be seen as a unique and original category. It cannot be simply explained by other things. Mircea Eliade, a famous historian of religion, used Otto's ideas as a starting point for his own book, The Sacred and the Profane.

Otto's way of looking at religion was criticized for a while. But around 1990, it started to become popular again. Ninian Smart, who helped shape religious studies as a non-religious field, was influenced by Otto. This was true for Smart's understanding of religious experience and how to study religions across different cultures.

Influence on Psychology

Carl Gustav Jung, who started analytic psychology, used the idea of the numinous in psychology and psychotherapy. He believed it was helpful for healing and understanding oneself better. Jung said that for him, religion was about carefully observing the numinosum. The American Episcopal priest John A. Sanford used the ideas of both Otto and Jung in his writings about religious therapy.

Impact on Philosophy

The philosopher Max Horkheimer used the idea of the "wholly other" in his 1970 book. Walter Terence Stace wrote that Otto's The Idea of the Holy was one of the most important books for him. Other philosophers influenced by Otto include Martin Heidegger, Leo Strauss, and Hans-Georg Gadamer.

Rudolf Otto's Ecumenical Work

Otto was very involved in ecumenical activities. This means he worked to bring different Christian denominations (groups) closer together. He also worked to build bridges between Christianity and other religions. He even tried adding a quiet time, like a Quaker moment of silence, to the Lutheran liturgy (church service). This was meant to give worshipers a chance to experience the numinous.

Rudolf Otto's Writings

You can find a full list of Otto's works in Robert F. Davidson's book, Rudolf Otto's Interpretation of Religion (Princeton, 1947).

Books in German

• Naturalistische und religiöse Weltansicht (1904)
• Die Kant-Friesische Religions-Philosophie (1909)
• Das Heilige – Über das Irrationale in der Idee des Göttlichen und sein Verhältnis zum Rationalen (Breslau, 1917)
• West-östliche Mystik (1926)
• Die Gnadenreligion Indiens und das Christentum (1930)
• Reich Gottes und Menschensohn (1934)

English Translations of His Works

• Naturalism and Religion, translated by J. Arthur Thomson & Margaret Thomson (London: Williams and Norgate, 1907) [originally published 1904]
• The Life and Ministry of Jesus, According to the Critical Method (Chicago: Open Court, 1908), ISBN: 0-8370-4648-3.
• The Idea of the Holy, translated by JW Harvey (New York: OUP, 1923; 2nd edn, 1950; reprint, New York, 1970), ISBN: 0-19-500210-5 [originally published 1917]
• Christianity and the Indian Religion of Grace (Madras, 1928)
• India's Religion of Grace and Christianity Compared and Contrasted, translated by FH Foster (New York; London, 1930)
• 'The Sensus Numinis as the Historical Basis of Religion', Hibbert Journal 29, (1930), 1–8
• The Philosophy of Religion Based on Kant and Fries, translated by EB Dicker (London, 1931) [originally published 1909]
• Religious essays: A supplement to 'The Idea of the Holy', translated by B Lunn, (London, 1931)
• Mysticism East and West: A Comparative Analysis of the Nature of Mysticism, translated by BL Bracey and RC Payne (New York, 1932) [originally published 1926]
• 'In the sphere of the holy', Hibbert Journal 31 (1932–3), 413–6
• The original Gita: The song of the Supreme Exalted One (London, 1939)
• The Kingdom of God and the Son of Man: A Study in the History of Religion, translated by FV Filson and BL Wolff (Boston, 1943)
• Autobiographical and Social Essays (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1996), ISBN: 3-11-014518-9

See also

In Spanish: Rudolf Otto para niños