Rudolf Otto

Rudolf ( originally Charles Louis Rudolph) Otto ( born September 25, 1869 in Peine, † March 6, 1937 in Marburg ) was a German scholar of religion and Protestant theologian.

Life

Otto took May 1888 at the University of Erlangen to study theology, and moved to the University of Göttingen later. In 1898, he was with a thesis on the Spirit and word in Luther's theology to Lic. doctorate. A PhD. followed in 1905 in Tübingen ( dissertation: Naturalistic and religious world view). In 1906 he resigned after eight years as a lecturer a position as associate professor in Göttingen. 1913 Otto was chosen after several previous unsuccessful candidates in the constituency of Göttingen as a deputy of the National Liberal Party in the Prussian Chamber of Deputies. In 1915 he became Professor of Systematic Theology in Wroclaw and moved in 1917 to the University of Marburg. In May 1918 he joined because of its rejection of the three-class voting with some like-minded people from the faction of his party. Like most other MEPs from the left wing of the National Liberal Otto joined the German Democratic Party and represented it in 1919 in the Prussian State Assembly.

Although he still occasionally received calls to other universities, he kept the Marburg chair for the rest of his academic life. In 1927 he founded the religious educational collection at Marburg University. In 1929 he became Professor Emeritus.

Rudolf Otto died in 1937 after a prolonged stay in hospital of pneumonia, after he had been injured badly in a fall from a tower 20 meters high. Stubborn, but never confirmed, it was rumored at the fall of a suicide attempt. He is buried at the Marburg town cemetery.

Work

By traveling to India, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, the Middle East and Africa Otto's interest in the religions of the world was awakened, especially Hinduism.

In his major work ( The Holy, 1917) he deals with the experience of the sacred. This includes his opinion, insofar irrational moments one, as associated feelings elude rational conceptualization of and can be demonstrated only by ostensive ideograms or deuterium terms. The irreducible moments of this experience, he called mysterium mysterium tremendum and fascinans. This principle was, even if not to use so decidedly and without these terms, recognized by Luther. This can be seen among others in the "Little Catechism ", since the response of the individual item always begins as follows: " We are to fear God above all things and love ... ". The weight of the two verbs is more on the " love", especially since it is an emotionally intense and deeper Act: An image that the larger " Yes " lesser "No" includes with.

In the former sense, God reveals himself as an overwhelming power, before the creature shuddered and transcended as the wholly other human reason. The saint is, however, not perceived as the absolutely uncanny, because inseparable from this aspect, there is the fascinating, exhilarating experience of the divine. The irreducibility of the moments of shuddering and trust marks Otto by determining the holy as numinous ( he translated the Latin numen with " supernatural beings without more accurate idea ").

Otto tried the problem of saints as incommensurable and in its relation to concepts, moral principles and positive religion quite differently to solve by referring to Kant's idea of ​​schematization. After Otto reminds the numinous experience of concepts and principles such as love, over power, and goodness, so that the numinous Although not described, however, is associated with thinking and acting. As a result of this schematization, the Holy arises as complex a priori value category.

Criticism of this view of the saint as a priori category responds that in Kant experiences are the only way possible that a priori categories are available, while Otto can arise from experience a priori categories to the religious experience as sui generis and thus to preserve Valid.

In his religious studies major works, The grace religion of India and Christianity Eastern and Western mysticism, Otto compares the aspects of the religious piety and mysticism, Hinduism and Christianity. He studied Bhakti and Advaita Vedanta and represents the famous philosopher of Vaishnavism, Ramanuja, and the Shivaite founder of Advaita Vedanta, Shankara, dar. Otto explains similarities between Hinduism and Christianity, but came to the conclusion that the mysticism of Christianity was that of the Vedanta. superior

Otto's influence on theology, philosophy of religion and religious studies in the 20th century was considerably: The Protestant theologian Paul Tillich was equally influenced by him as a native of Romania scholar of religion Mircea Eliade and the most important petrol students in the German area, Gustav Mensching, but also Kurt Goldammer and Gerardus van der Leeuw Religionsphänomenologen like. The phenomenological philosopher Hermann Schmitz working has expanded Otto's approach to a theory of numinous feelings.

Of special significance is found also in the context of ( Religion ) Psychology Otto. Of particular note is especially the reception of the concept of the numinous by the depth psychology of Carl Jung and his recording and critical appraisal by transpersonal psychology in its various forms (eg, Charles Fried Count Dürckheim ). In the U.S., Rudolf Otto, in contrast to the German psychology of religion, today considered the center of its effect.

Otto's views are no longer recognized in the science of religion and theory of religion as a universal, yet his work has also today still effect, such as Asian theologians and philosophers of religion. Rudolf Otto and his pupil Gustav Mensching have been rediscovered in recent years as a pioneer of Practical Science of Religion ( Udo Tworuschka ).

Honors

Otto was awarded in 1932 from Uppsala University with an honorary doctorate.

Works (selection)

• The conception of the Holy Spirit in Luther: A historical- dogmatic examination. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1898 (online).
• The historical-critical view of the life and ministry of Jesus: 6 lectures, in March 1901 in Hannover ... held. . Göttingen 1901 3rd edition as: life and work of Jesus according to historical kristischer view: lectures. Göttingen 1902 ( 4th edition 1905 online).
• The Saints: About the irrational in the idea of the divine and its relation to the rational. Trewendt & Granier, Wroclaw 1917 ( 4th edition 1920 online). Reprints: Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-51091-4.
• Vishnu Narayana: Texts on Indian mysticism of God, I, 1917.
• Siddhânta of Rämänuja: Texts on Indian God mysticism, II, 1917.
• The grace religion of India and Christianity: comparison and distinction, 1930.
• West-Eastern mysticism: comparison and distinction to nature interpretation. Leopold Klotz, Gotha 1926 (online).
• The feelings of not secular: Sensus Numinus [ essays ], 1931.