The Idea of the Holy is one of the enduring classics of 20th-century German theology. The Lutheran theologian Rudolf Otto coined the term "numinous" and defined it as a "non-rational, non-sensory experience or feeling whose primary and immediate object is outside the self." Otto's work had a massive influence on thinkers as diverse as Paul Tillich and C.S. Lewis.
The book contains the following chapters:
I. The Rational and the Non-rational
II. 'Numen' and the 'Numinous'
III. The Elements in the 'Numinous'
IV. Mysterium Tremendum
V. The Analysis of 'Mysterium'
VI. The Element of Fascination
VII. Analogies and Associated Feelings
VIII. The Holy as a Category of Value
IX. Means of Expression of the Numinous
X. The Numinous in the Old Testament
XI. The Numinous in the New Testament
XII. The Numinous in Luther
XIII. The Two Processes of Development
XIV. The Holy as an A Priori Category
XV. Its Earliest Manifestations
XVI. The 'Cruder' Phases
XVII. The Holy as an A Priori Category
XVIII. The Manifestations of the 'Holy' and the Faculty of 'Divination'
XIX. Divination in Primitive Christianity
XX. Divination in Christianity Today
XXI. History and the A Priori in Religion: Summary and Conclusion
