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From a historical point of view Rudolf Otto’s work Das Heilige (The Idea of the Holy), which appeared in 1917, is one of the crucial points of transition in European thought about revelation and alterity. It could be argued that conceptually and in argumentative style it laid basis for much of what followed. Martin Jay (2004, Chap. 3) has noted that Otto’s body of work in general and Das Heilige in particular is embedded in the tradition that struggled to find in religious experience a source of knowledge and belief that could supplement the full blown rationalism of modern empirical and critical philosophies. To do just that, Otto found inspiration from the examples of concrete religious experiences in non-European cultures. The philosophies of Friedrich Schleiermacher and Johann Jacob Fries were also central to his formulation of the lineaments of a new theology.
In Das HeiligeOtto held fast on the experiential, in some sense even irrational, dimensions...
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References
By Rudolf Otto: Selected Bibliography (in German)
Das Heilige. Über das Irrationale in der Idee des Göttlichen und sein Verhältnis zum Rationalen, 1917.
Vischnu-Nârâyana; Texte zur indische Gottesmystik, I, 1917.
Siddhânta des Râmânuja, Texte zur indische Gottesmystik,II, 1917.
Die Gnadenreligion Indiens und das Christentum; Vergleich und Unterscheidung, 1930.
West-Östliche Mystik; Vergleich und Unterscheidung zur Wesensdeutung, 1926.
Das Gefühl des Überweltlichen; Sensus Numinus, [Aufsätze], 1931.
By Rudolf Otto: Selected Bibliography (in English)
Naturalism and Religion (1907), London: Williams and Norgate.
The Life and Ministry of Jesus, According to the Critical Method (1908), Chicago: Open Court.
The Idea of the Holy (1923), Oxford University Press.
Christianity and the Indian Religion of Grace, Madras 1928.
India’s Religion of Grace and Christianity Compared and Contrasted, New York 1930.
The philosophy of religion based on Kant and Fries, London 1931.
Religious essays: A supplement to The Idea of the Holy, London 1931.
Mysticism east and west: A comparative analysis of the nature of mysticism, New York 1932.
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, Boston 1943.
Autobiographical and social essays (1996), Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
On Rudolf Otto: Selected Bibliography (in English)
Almond, P. C. (1984). Rudolf Otto: An introduction to his philosophical theology. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Gooch, T. A. (2000). The numinous and modernity: An interpretation of Rudolf Otto’s philosophy of religion. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Jay, M. (2004). Songs of experience. Modern American and European reflections on a universal theme. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Raphael, M. (1997). Rudolf Otto and the concept of holiness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Moisio, OP. (2013). Das Heilige, Concept of. In: Runehov, A.L.C., Oviedo, L. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8265-8_705
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