Matthew Ordonez Otto Outline: Idea of the Holy Ph 103 X August 30,2012 I. Rational and the Non-Rational a.

Nature of God is an analogy with our human nature of reason and personality i. Man(restricted and limited) ii. God(absolute and unqualified) b. Nature of Deity must be rational(Belief vs. Mere feeling i. Must have criterion of a religions rank and supreme value ii. No lack of conceptions of God iii. Should admit knowledge that comes from faith iv. Of the transcendent in terms of conceptual thought c. Rational attributes imply a non-rational or supra-rational Subject of which they are prejudices. d. Rationalism vs. profounder religion i. Rationalism is not a denial of the miraculous ii. Resolves itself into the difference of quality in mental attitude and emotional content of religious life iii. Orthodoxy fails to do injustice to the non-rational subject iv. Religion is not a series of rational assertions but also a matter of astonishment II. Numen and Numenous a. Holiness contains a specific element or moment which sets apart from the rationalit remains inexpressible or ineffable. b. Holy-Latin- we feel a clear overplus of meaning c. Numen-A holy that represents the gradual shaping and filling in with ethical meaning or schematization of what was a unique original feeling-response i. Extra-meaning of holy above and beyond goodness(ominous) d. Numenous stae of mind-sui generis and irreducible to any other/cant be defined III. Element s of Numinous a. As Christians, we first meet with feelings familiar enough in a weaker form like gratitude, love, reliance, trust. b. Schliermacher(feeling of absolute Depending)- a sense of personal insufficiency and impotence, an consciousness of being determined by circumstances and environment. i. Made the distinction between absolute and relative depending but is only definable through itself ii. Creature Consciousness/feeling-emotion submerged and overwhelmed by its own nothingness in contrast to that which is supreme above all creature 1. Can express its submergence before an overpowering absolute might. 2. We can only come up with the fact of God through inference 3. Numinous is objective and outside the self IV. Mysterium Trimendum 1. Mysterium-hidden and esoteric 2. Wild and demonic forms 3. Hushed trembling and speech in the presence of a mystery a. Element of Awefulness 1. Tremor-natural and familiar emotion of fear; keeping holy through fear or Dread beyond ordinary or profane fear(Uncanny). 2. Wrath is the ideogram of unique moment in a religious experience; daunting and awe-inspiring b. Element of overpoweringness (majestas) 1. Feeling of submergence from being but dust and ashes and nothingness. 2. Must correlate dependence i.e. God is all causing and all conditioning

3. Mysticism-self-depreciating; identification with degrees of completeness of the self with the transcendent reality. c. Element of Energy or Urgency i. Fiercest opposition o the philosophic God ii. Element of synergy is a living and vigorous factor in the voluntaristic mysticism= V. The Analysis of Mysterium i. Tremendium and mysterium are synthetic and inseperable. ii. Tremor vs. Stupor-blank astonishment that strikes us dumb, amazement absolute. iii. Spirit representations are at precise moments iv. Mysterious-beyond comprehension or apprehension v. Wholly other, doesnt truly exist-no place on the scheme of reality 1. Numinous object 2. It is through the positive feeling content that one can be transcendent VI. The elements of Fascination. a. Attractive and fascinating-harmony of contrasts, dual character of numinous consciousness. b. Besides fear and dreadit allures with a potent charm and the creature trembles before it. c. Neither Wrath nor graciousness can exhaust the meaning d. It can never explain how this takes place, not only in the national religious spaces but in queer sacramental observances e. Everywhere salvation is something whose meaning is often very little apparent, is even wholly obscure to the natural man.