Rudolf Otto

Rudolf Otto was born in 1869 at Peine, near Hanover. He studied Lutheran theology at Erlangen and Göttingen, and taught systematic theology at Göttingen, Breslau and, from 1917, Marburg, where he remained until his retirement. He was influenced by Kant, by the theologian Schleiermacher, whose Speeches on Religion he edited, and by the philosopher Jakob Fries.

Travels in North Africa, India and the Far East deepened his interest in other religions. His book Das Heilige (1917), translated as The Idea of the Holy, argued that religion rests on a unique experience of the holy, which he called the numinous, and was one of the most widely read theological books of the century. He also translated and studied Indian religious texts, and in Mysticism East and West (1926) compared Meister Eckhart with Śaṅkara.

He worked for understanding between religions, founding a Religious League of Mankind, and built at Marburg a collection of religious objects from many traditions. He was also active in politics as a liberal member of the Prussian parliament. He died at Marburg in 1937.

Otto’s influence extended far beyond theology. Historians of religion such as Mircea Eliade took up the idea of the holy as a distinct category, and the phrase mysterium tremendum entered general use. Critics have argued that he took a Protestant experience of the holy as the model for all religion, and that his comparisons sometimes favour Christianity.