Rob Dufour - The Idea of the Holy 2

Otto describes the element of the awefulness through analyzing mysterium tremendum. He says that we must understand the concept of fear that is invoked upon through specific encounters with God. “Religious dread” is a term that he uses to describe the feelings that humans may experience. It first begins to stir in the feelings of something weird or eerie. Then, through this feeling, the thought emerges in our minds that we form a starting-point for the entire religious development in history. Otto goes on to describe “shuddering” and how the natural man is quite unable to shudder or feel horror in the real sense of the word, because shuddering is something more than natural or ordinary fear. Otto says that shuddering “implies that the mysterious is already beginning to loom before the mind, to touch the feelings.” It has become a mystical awe and sets free that creature feeling that has already been described as a feeling of personal nothingness before an awe-inspiring object that can be directly experienced. After reading this section, I may think twice before referring to something such as a Hot Pocket as awesome.