Andrew Deitrick: The Idea of the Holy

After rereading several chapters of Rudolf Otto's, The Idea of the Holy, I think I have come to a new understanding of divinity. The 'wholly other' can really be anything, or nothing at all. I think Otto's biggest concern for conveying the message of this idea lies behind the feelings and emotions of mysterium tremendum.

I've come to realize that this concept is not really a concept at all, but really a feeling that illudes words, and oftentimes logical meaning. The process of mysterium tremendum was tricky to grasp and understand. I'm not even still sure that I understand it completely, but it seems to make more sense, for whats its worth. While watching 2001: A Space Odyssey, the film I chose for my final paper, I realized that I was engulfed in a deliberate formation of mysterium tremendum. The film itself, both in its inner and outer frames, is a flowing expression of Otto's term. It is almost as if Stanley Kubrick filled out the template to 2001 after reading Otto's concept of mysterium tremendum. I think I'm on to something here, or at least hope so, considering it was basically my thesis.