1. LO: I will know about Numinous types of experience
Numinous Experience
LO: I will know about Numinous types of experience

2. Intro to Numinous What did you find?
Research Rudolf Otto ( ). In addition, research ONE of the following:
Friedrich Schleiermacher ( )
Martin Buber ( )
You must present:
who they were (background info)
what they said in relation to Religious Experience
anything interesting that you might think is relevant for the group.
Some of you will be selected to present to the group tomorrow.

3. Active reading – pg 36-37 Speed date
Give a definition of the Numinous experience
What does it give us an awareness of?
Where does the name come from and what does it mean?
What does ‘mysterum; tremendum’ mean?
What is fascinans?
Why is the Numinous experience so important for Otto?
In what way did Kant influence Otto?
How does Schleiermacher agree with Otto?
Schleiermacher parts with Otto in saying that Religious Experiences are not numinous. What is his understanding?
How do we get Theology?
NB Otto argues that all religious experiences are numinous in nature.
Pupils don’t need to feedback directly, could just get pupils to give checklist after activity (using the next slide) to check they know what it is.
Speed date
Go around and explain what you have found under a time limit

4. Checklist
If we were to do a checklist of all of the characteristics of a Numinous experience, what would they be?
What are other understanding of religious experience? I.e. Schleiermacher and Buber?
Pupils could comment and write on white board.
Schleiermacher: A relationship of dependence upon God, which triggers an emotional response
Buber: A personal relationship
NB Otto emphasized the ‘fear of God’ aspect.

5. Numinous Experience
Numinous religious experiences are experiences of awe and wonder in the presence of an almighty and transcendent God.
It is an awareness of human nothingness when faced with a holy and powerful being.
The name comes from the Latin ‘numen’ which means to bow the head.
These experiences provide a reference point for believers to interpret the world through experience and the beliefs attached to it.
Though reflections are attempted ultimately the encounter with God is inexpressible.
YOU MAY NOT NEED TO GO THROUGH THIS SLIDE IF THE POINTS ALREADY GET COVERED IN PREVIOUS ACTIVITY. JUST MOVE ON.
Give a definition of the Numinous experience
What does it give us an awareness of?
Where does the name come from and what does it mean?
Can we reflect on these experiences?

6. Rudolf Otto
Otto describes numinous experiences as being ‘mysterum; tremendum’. E.g. Mystery and awe-inspiring terror in the presence of an overwhelming being.
Despite this we are drawn to the experience because of fascinans, a strange fascination.
The numinous experience is key to understanding the spirituality of many religions. Otto claimed that ‘there is no religion in which it does not live as the innermost core and without it no religion would be worthy of the name.’
Otto was influenced by Kant and recognised that God could not be known via sensory experience or logical argument. For Otto God is ‘wholly Other’. We can’t know God unless he reveals himself to us. This numinous experience is felt on an emotional level.
Otto says these experiences are a ‘once and for all’ experience. This implies their can be no further religious experience.
What does ‘mysterum; tremendum’ mean?
What is fascinans?
Why is the Numinous experience so important for Otto?
In what way did Kant influence Otto?
NB Kant thought Noumenal realm was inaccessible, constant and unchanging. This is where God is.

7. Other understandings of religious experience
Friedrich Schleiermacher ( ) agreed with Otto that religious experiences are primarily emotional. These emotions are deeper than reason.
For Schleiermacher, the experiences are not numinous but are at their core a feeling of absolute dependence upon the divine. It is this awareness of absolute dependence upon ‘a source of power that is distinct from the world’ that is at the heart of religion.
Theology arises afterwards as people reflect on their experiences.
NB Difference – Otto focusses more on the fear of God (awe-inspiring terror) whereas Schleiermacher focusses more on the relational aspects (dependence upon the Uncreated/ Still transcendent though)
How does Scheiermacher agree with Otto?
Schleiermacher parts with Otto in saying that Religious Experiences are not numinous. What is his understanding?
How do we get Theology?
Otto developed the ideas of Schleiermacher. Schleiermacher claimed that the essence of religion was based in personal experience, and that it was not enough just to agree to a set of doctrines, or commit oneself to a set of ethical principles.
Schleiermacher believed that every person has a consciousness of the divine, but in many people, this is obscured by other concerns.
Schleiermacher says religious experience is ‘self-authenticating’ meaning, it required no other testing to see if it is genuine.
He also thought that experience should have priority and the statements of belief should be formulated to fit them.
Schleiermacher was criticised for being too subjective reducing religion to emotion.
How are Otto and Schleiermacher compatible? Both give emphasis to the felt experience, and that everyone is made with the capacity to be conscious of God.

8. Other understandings of religious experience
Martin Buber ( ) viewed religious experiences as being analogous to intimate personal relationships that he called I-thou relationships.
This differs from the I-it relationship that we have with objects or when we treat people as objects.
The I-thou relationship is a mutual interaction. We may experience such I- thou relationships when we encounter nature, in deep friendships and most importantly, by experiencing God.
Otto’s analysis of religious experience over-emphasises God’s transcendence at the expense of God’s immanence – The idea that God can be known personally.

9. Numinious? That was a most unsettling experience!
Is this like a Numinious experience? Where we are prodded and left deeply impacted by the experience?
That was a most unsettling experience!

10. For debate
‘The unsettling nature of numinous experiences means that they are less likely to be something that our minds have made up.’

11. Quote
‘It is the emotion of a creature submerged and overwhelmed by its own nothingness in contrast to that which is supreme above all creatures’. Rudolf Otto.
What does Otto means by this quote?

12. Tell me three things... you have learnt today you have done well
the group has done well
you would like to find out more about
you know now that you didn’t know an hour ago