[Main Blog Post] [Book] Thoughts on The Idea of the Holy

[jprussell]

I just wrapped up Rudolf Otto's The Idea of the Holy and decided to organize my thinking a bit with a post. As always, I'd love to hear what you think.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Good review. I've been a fan of Otto for several years. Thanks for mentioning the three kinds of silence. Lately, the idea that the numinous is beyond words (and even beyond "logic," from the Greek word for "word") has appealed to me. There are definitely opportunities for creative use of silence in religious rite.

[jprussell]

Thanks for the kind words, glad you enjoyed it! And yeah, as much good as may have come from the West's long experiment with logically grounding religious belief, the more I develop my own practice, the more I think the nihilism and other ills we see today are deeply linked with that assumption, so maybe it's helpful to revisit the wordless and non-logical sides of religion.