Jared Free The Idea of the Holy 4/21/10

Rudolf Otto claims that is essential for all those who have any sort of concept of God, especially to Christians, that they characterize deity “by the attributes of spirit, reason, purpose, good will, supreme power, unity, selfhood (1).” Thus, God is made up of all the qualities humans strive to embrace in themselves; whereas these qualities in man are restricted and limited, however, in God these characteristics are complete and absolute.
As I was reading Otto’s argument, however, I felt that to look at God so rationally and to characterize a deity so explicitly does not take into account any aspect of faith. Otto touches on this himself, though, saying “we have to be on our guard against an error which would lead to a wrong and one-sided interpretation of religion (1);” that interpretation being only the rational. Language, Otto argues, is the cause for this tendency to view religion from strictly a rational perspective. Although it is important to understand religion and God from a faith perspective, I find that I learn more from a rational one; and that knowing God rationally only strengthens my faith in him.