Numinous experiences: Otto

• Numinous experiences.

  Experiences of the 'wholly other', unrelated to spatio-temporal experiences.
• It is an experience that is the basis of all genuine religion.
• It is a sense of the wholly other.
• The emphasis is on God's transcendence.
• It is a non-rational and unique form of experience, totally outside our everyday experience.
• Experience of the numinous:
• Experience of the numinous:

  • Refers to a presence and reality that cannot be understood with the senses or intellect.
  • It is a sense of the Holy.
• Holy.

  Means 'other than', 'separate from'.
• The idea of the Holy:

  • An attempt to describe the sense some people have of a reality totally outside and beyond their experience of themselves and the world.
• Mysterium tremendum et fascinans: means a 'fearful and attractive mystery'.
• Mysterium.

  Refers to something far removed from humanity that can be experienced but not understood. It elicits the response of awe and wonder.
• Tremendum.

  Refers to the fearsome experience of God's overwhelming majesty and energy. Creates a sense of human nothingness and sinfulness, and consequently absolute dependence on God.
• Fascinans.

  The compulsive and attractive nature of the experience creates the desire for a relationship with this Being, despite its fearful nature. It creates an awareness of the need for salvation.