The non-rational elements in what is experienced in religions as the ‘Holy’.
Experience of the numinous is of a mysterium tremendum fascinans et augustum. As mysterium, the numen is revealed as a ‘wholly other’. As tremendum, it generates boundless awe and wonder in the person who experiences it. As fascinans, it entrances and captivates the individual. It is of supreme subjective value for humans and possesses in itself objective value (augustum).
For Otto, the whole course of the history of religions is determined by an evolving apprehension of the fundamental elements of the numinous. It is therefore held [by him] to be the core of all religion.
© The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions 1997, originally published by Oxford University Press 1997.
