Background
Otto, Rudolf was born on September 25, 1869 in Peine.
theologian philosopher of religion Neo-Kantian
Otto, Rudolf was born on September 25, 1869 in Peine.
Erlangen and Göttingen.
Professor at Göttingen (1904-1914), Breslau (1914-1917) and Marburg (1917-1929).
Otto is best known for his analysis of the religious. He believed that the experience of the holy was central in all of religion. Influenced both by Friedrich Schleiermacher and by Immanuel Kant, Otto argued that we must differentiate in the holy a feeling of the numinous and the schematizing concepts. The former is characterized by mystery, awe and fascination. It cannot be reduced to other, non-religious feelings, but it constitutes a cognitive feeling sui generis. It is of something 'wholly other’ than man. Numinous feelings disclose the nominous object. However, we must think of the nominous object by means of certain ideograms, or better, by certain schematizing concepts. Otto’s views on the origin of the religious in the numinous was very influential especially among theologians.