A little over 100 years ago Rudolf Otto published a book with the title: The Idea of The Holy. This book was the result of many years of work by Otto in which he tried to explain the Holy nature of God but discovered that the words of languages he understood were inadequate, none of them expressed completely what he wanted to say. As a result Otto introduced numinous a form of the Latin word Numen into modern language. He argued that if we understand ‘holy’ to mean absolute and complete goodness, then God is more good than that, he is the numen, the one and his character is numinous.
When we think of God and his holiness we usually try to explain him in a sensible, intelligent way. Otto insists that while this is necessary there is a dimension to the nature of God that produces an emotional, unexplainable response and we cannot express it in words. He writes that the feeling of an encounter with God’s holiness may at times come sweeping like a gentle tide, pervading the mind (to be completely and thoroughly aware) with a tranquil mood of deepest worship. It may pass over to a more vibrant lasting attitude of the soul which becomes thrillingly vibrant until it dies away and we return to the non religious mood of everyday experience. Words simply cannot express this response to the Holiness of God.
Three words are used by Otto to try to explain the character of God’s holiness, they are: Mysterious, Tremendous and Fascinating. The way those words are used today are sometimes different from the technically correct way Otto uses them, and as Otto points out they are insufficient anyway. God is a mystery, this means he is beyond our understanding. No matter how hard we try we cannot fully understand him, he remains outside the grasp of our limited intelligence. These days we read and hear of ‘murder mysteries’ or ‘detective mysteries’ or the word is used to refer to something which is out of the ordinary. This does injustice to the word. A mystery is not a puzzle to be solved, a matter of following the right clues or asking the right questions. A mystery as Otto uses it something we cannot understand, one day it will be revealed, but only when we are with God in his heavenly kingdom. The Trinity is a mystery, we worship one true God and yet we know he exists in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, what does that mean, how do we understand it? In our efforts to explain the Trinity we might produce a variety of suggested explanations none of which are completely satisfactory, similarly we say that Jesus was fully human and fully divine, how can we explain that or that we have free will but God is sovereign? These and many other things we hold to be true are difficult, in fact impossible to make clear. We believe them to be true and accept by faith that one day it will become clear – but until then it is and will remain a mystery.
Rudolf Otto was convinced that an encounter with the Holy God would produce a response that could not be put into words. When faced with His absolute goodness our own total nothing-ness would be overwhelming, we cannot express this verbally and it can only be understood by the person experiencing it. If this is worship then what we offer to God is too often very far short of it. In our desire to focus on the approachability of God we have somehow tried to strip him of his mystery. How often do we feel overwhelmed by the holiness of God, indeed do we want to be? Are we content to intellectually engage with a God that we understand and hope that he does not break out of the mould we have put him in or are we prepared to abandon ourselves, our bodies, souls and minds in the hope that we would be dramatically changed by his presence?
Richard W.Foster 