Rudolf Otto (September 25, 1869 - 6 March 1937) was an eminent German protestant theologian and scholar of comparative religion. September 25 is the 268th day of the year (269th in leap years). ... 1869 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... March 6 is the 65th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (66th in Leap years). ... 1937 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... Theology is reasoned discourse concerning God (Greek θεος, theos, God, + λογος, logos, word or reason). It also refers to the study of other religious topics. ... A scholar is either a student or someone who has achieved a mastery of some academic discipline. ... In grammar the comparative is the form of an adjective or adverb which denotes the degree or grade by which a person, thing, or other entity has a property or quality greater or less in extent than that of another. ...

Life

Born in Peine near Hanover, Otto attended the Gymnasium Adreanum in Hildesheim and studied at the universities of Erlangen and Göttingen, from where he received both his doctorate (with a dissertation on Luther) and habilitation on Kant. In 1906, he became extraordinary professor (see professor), and in 1910 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Giessen. In 1915, he became ordinary professor at the University of Breslau, and in 1917, at the University of Marburg's Divinity School, then one of the most famous Protestant seminaries in the world. Although he received several other calls, he remained in Marburg for the rest of his life. He retired in 1929 and died eight years later, probably as a consequence from a malaria infection he had caught on one of his many expeditions. He is buried on Marburg cemetery. Erlangen is a German city in Middle Franconia. ... The Georg-August University of Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, often called the Georgia Augusta) was founded in 1734 by George II, King of Great Britain and Elector of Hanover, and opened in 1737. ... This article is about the thesis in dialectics and academia. ... For other people named Martin Luther see: Martin Luther (disambiguation), or here for Martin Luther King, Jr. ... Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (April 22, 1724 – February 12, 1804) was a Prussian philosopher, generally regarded as one of Europes most influential thinkers and the last major philosopher of the Enlightenment. ... A professor is a senior teacher, lecturer and researcher, usually in a college or university. ... An Honorary degree (Latin: honoris causa ad gradum) is a degree awarded to someone by an institution that he or she may have never attended, it may be a bachelors, masters or doctorate degree - however, the latter is most common. ... The University of Gießen (Giessen), officially called Justus Liebig-Universität Gießen after its most famous member, the founder of modern agricultural chemistry and inventor of artificial fertilizer. ... 1915 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... The University of Breslau (Universität Breslau) was a university in Breslau, Germany, which existed from 1702 until the city with the rest of Silesia was occupied by Stalin and given to the Peoples Republic of Poland after the Second World War. ... The University of Marburg, officially called Philipps-Universität Marburg after its founder, the Landgrave Philipp I of Hesse (usually called the Magnanimous), was founded in 1527 and is the worlds first and oldest Protestant university. ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... A seminary is a specialized university-like institution for the purpose of instructing students in religion, often in order to prepare them to become members of the clergy. ... 1929 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Red blood cell infected with Malaria (Italian: bad air; formerly called ague or marsh fever in English) is an infectious disease which in humans causes about 350-500 million infections and approximately 1. ... An infection is the detrimental colonization of a host organism by a foreign species. ... Marburg is a city in Hesse, Germany, on the Lahn river. ...

Work

Otto's most famous work, The Idea of the Holy (published first in 1917 as Das Heilige), is one of the most successful German theological books of the 20th century.This book has been translated into Persian by Prof.Dr.Homayoun Hemmati under title of "Mafhoome Amre Ghodsi", Tehran, 2001. It has never been out of print and is now available in about 20 languages. The book defines the concept of the holy as that which is numinous. Otto explained the numinous as a "non-rational, non-sensory experience or feeling whose primary and immediate object is outside the self". He coined this new term based on the Latin "numen" (deity). This expression is unrelated to Immanuel Kant's noumenon, a Greek term referring to a hypothetical intellectual intuition. It is a mystery (Latin: mysterium tremendum) that is both fascinating (fascinans) and terrifying at the same time. It also sets a paradigm for the study of religion that focuses on the need to realize the religious as a non-reducible, original category in its own right. This paradigm was under much attack between approximately 1950 and 1990 but has made a strong comeback since then. 1917 was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... Immanuel Kant (April 22, 1724 – February 12, 1804) was a German philosopher and scientist (astrophysics, mathematics, geography, anthropology) from East Prussia, generally regarded as one of Western societys and modern Europes most influential thinkers and the last major philosopher of the Enlightenment. ... --In the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, a noumenon or thing in itself (German Ding an sich) is an unknowable, indescribable reality that, in some way, lies behind observed phenomena. ... Latin is the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1990 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

German-American theologian Paul Tillich acknowledged Otto's influence on him, as did Romanian-American anthropologist Mircea Eliade. Eliade used the concepts from The Idea of the Holy as the starting point for his own 1957 book, The Sacred and the Profane (ISBN 015679201X). Paul Johannes Tillich (August 20, 1886 – October 22, 1965) was a German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher. ... See Anthropology. ... Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade (March 9, 1907, Bucharest - April 22, 1986, Chicago, Illinois) was a Romanian historian of religions and writer (fantasy and autobiographical). ... 1957 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Books available in English

• Naturalism and religion, London 1907
• The life and ministry of Jesus, Chicago 1908
• The Idea of the Holy, Oxford 1923, ISBN 0195002105
• 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, Berlin 1996

External links

• Otto homepage
• brief page on Otto
• Otto and the Numinous