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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