The Idea of the Holy: part 2

"Holiness - 'the holy' - is a category of interpretation and valuation peculiar to the sphere of religion." - Rudolf Otto, 'Numen' and the 'Numinous'.

So what exactly is this Idea of the Holy? We learn that it is 'applied' to Ethics, even if Ethics doesn't come from it. It is Ineffable: that is, it cannot be comprehended by concepts. It is compared to 'the category of the Beautiful'. But isn't 'the Holy' just another concept?

Otto realizes this, and sees that if it were just another concept, he'd be inconsistent. Of course, it has been used as a concept, meaning 'the most Good' - Kant calls the Will that always follows the moral law the 'Holy' will. Yet even though 'Holy' means this, it doesn't 'only' mean this - we also Feel it means something else, something that concepts can't capture, but which Otto wants to try and 'isolate'. To isolate it, Otto notes that at first, 'The Holy' only meant the part that concepts can't capture. Today, and maybe back then, 'The Holy' might have meant 'morally good'; but because we also want to isolate that part of The Holy which 'morally good' doesn't cover, which no concept can cover, we'll need another word.

We want a word that captures every part of the meaning of The Holy without the 'morally good' part. Since concepts allude us at this point, Otto wants to try and make us Feel this unnameable Something. This Something is the core of all Religion. Otto calls it a 'unique original Feeling-Response', 'ethically neutral', not mere Goodness. Otto chooses the word 'Numen', from 'Omen', from which we get 'Omnious', and from Numon we arrive at the Numinous.

Since the Numinous can't be defined, and concepts can't directly describe it, It itself must be 'brought to life' in consciousness - it must somehow be indirectly 'stirred' into being. Otto wants to do this by bringing our attention to 'regions' in our minds we are familiar with, and then showing an analogy or a resemblance to this experience of the Numinous. Otto adds: "This X of ours is not precisely 'this' experience, but akin to this one and the opposite of the other. Cannot you now realize for yourself what it is?" So Otto thinks he can't directly teach us about the Numinous. It must be 'Awoken', as do all things which are 'of the Spirit'.