Otto on rational religion!~ The nature of God is thought of by analogy with our human nature of reason and personality; only, whereas in ourselves we are aware of this as qualified by restriction and limitation, as applied to God the attributes we use are ‘completed’, i.e. thought as absolute and unqualified. all these attributes constitute clear and definite -concepts-: they can be grasped by the intellect; they can be analysed by thought; they even admit of definition. An object that can be thus thought conceptually may be termed -rational-. The nature of deity described in the attributes above mentioned is, then, a rational nature; and a religion which recognizes and maintains such a view of God is in so far a ‘rational’ religion. Only on such terms is -belief- possible in contrast to mere -feeling-. We count this the very mark and criterion of a religion’s high rank and superior value- that it should have no lack of -conceptions- about God; that it should admit knowledge… of the transcendent in terms of conceptual thought. Christianity not only possesses such conceptions but possesses them in unique clarity and abundance. …this is a very real sign of its superiority over religions of other forms and at other levels.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 20:08:05 +0000
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