“But a Pale Reflexion”: Rudolf Otto’s Numinous and the Kantian Sublime

In The Idea of the Holy, Rudolf Otto insists that the numinous, while bearing a close resemblance to the sublime, is categorically distinct, both experientially and axiologically. Although some scholars have accepted this contention uncritically, others have accused Otto of drawing a false distinction merely to bolster his argument for the autonomy of religious experience. Some, indeed, have suggested that the numinous is nothing other than the sublime by a different name. Otto’s claim, if true, has important implications for understanding the phenomenology of religious and aesthetic experiences, but it has never been thoroughly adjudicated. This essay acknowledges the problematic nature of Otto’s contention but argues that he does in fact plausibly distinguish the numinous from at least one influential theory of the sublime—the Kantian.