“The Idea of the Holy” by Rudolf Otto – Chapter 7

Chapter 7 of “The Idea of the Holy” by Rudolf Otto is named ‘Analogies and Associated Feelings.’ Here is our summary.

CHAPTER 7

Analogies and Associated Feelings
Pages 42 to 51

The numinous is both Mysterium Tremendum and Mysterium Fascinans. It is an object of both boundless awe and boundless wonder. It is a harmony of contrasts, analogous to the sublime. [Page 42]

The numinous and the sublime are analogous in two ways. First, they are both unexplainable and mysterious. Second, they are both daunting and yet attracting. [Page 43]

The Law of the Association of Feelings

Our ideas inspire more ideas. Similarly, our feelings incite more feelings. We can easily pass from one feeling to another. [Page 43]

However, what passes, or transitions, is not the feeling itself. Rather, it is that we ourselves transition from one feeling to another. [Page 44]

Some people imagine a gradual historical path taking humans from tribal custom to an obligatory “ought.” [Page 44]

However, constraint by custom is different from constraint by moral obligation. Otto is concerned with the replacement of the one by the other, and not the transmutation of the one into the other. [Page 45]

Similarly, our feeling of the numinous is not derived from other feelings. It has analogies, and yet it is sui generis. What is it that stimulates our numinous feeling? [Page 45]

Schematization

We often associate ideas. We think of idea x, and then idea y comes to mind. Similarly, we often associate feelings. For example, we associate our non-rational numinous feeling with rational concepts. This leads us to the complex category of the Holy. [Page 46]

The non-rational numinous feeling and the rational elements interweave in the religious consciousness. Tha is similar to how personal affection and the sex instinct interweave. [Page 47]

The phrase “he loves me” can be used to describe a platonic friendship or a sexual relationship. Similarly, the phrase “We ought to fear, love, and trust him” can be used to describe a child’s relationship to a parent or a believer’s relationship to God. [Page 48]

Another arena where non-rational feelings and rational elements combine is in our experience of music. Music can make us feel joy or make us mournful. And yet we schematize and rationalize it. [Page 49]

In Otto’s day, there was a type of music called Program Music. Otto saw it as an analogy of what some people do with the numinous experience. Some people schematize the august aspect of the numinous experience. By doing that, they water it down into the morally good. [Page 50]

We must resist doing away with the non-rational of the numinous experience. It exists in its own right. [Page 51]

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