Numinous (
/ˈnjuːmɨnəs/) is an English adjective, taken from the Latin
Numen, and used to describe the power or presence of a
divinity. The word was popularised in the early twentieth century by the German theologian
Rudolf Otto in his influential book
Das Heilige (1917; translated into English as
The Idea of the Holy, 1923). According to Otto, the numinous experience has in addition to the
tremendum, which is the tendency to invoke fear and trembling, a quality of
fascinans, the tendency to attract, fascinate and compel. The numinous experience also has a personal quality, in that the person feels to be in communion with a
wholly other. The numinous experience can lead in different cases to belief in
deities, the
supernatural, the
sacred, the
holy and/or the
transcendent.
[edit] Etymology
The word
numinous is derivative from the Classical Latin word
numen.
[edit] Rudolf Otto
Otto's use of the term as referring to a characteristic of religious experience was influential among intellectuals of the subsequent generation. For example, numinous as understood by Otto was a frequently quoted concept in the writings of
Carl Jung and
C. S. Lewis. The notion of the numinous and the
wholly other were also central to the religious studies of
Mircea Eliade.
Mysterium tremendum is described in
The Doors of Perception by
Aldous Huxley in the following terms:
The literature of religious experience abounds in references to the pains and terrors overwhelming those who have come, too suddenly, face to face with some manifestation of the mysterium tremendum. In theological language, this fear is due to the in-compatibility between man's egotism and the divine purity, between man's self-aggravated separateness and the infinity of God.[1]
[edit] Non-religious usage
The idea is not necessarily a religious one: noted atheists
Carl Sagan,
[2] Christopher Hitchens,
Daniel Dennett,
Richard Dawkins and
Sam Harris have discussed the importance of separating the numinous from the religious.
[3]
