A Study of the Objectivity and Supra-Rationality of the Numinous and its Relationship with Revelation in the Abrahamic Religions according to Rudolf Otto

The purpose of this article is to study the epistemology of religious experience from the point of view of Rudolf Otto. Otto emphasizes the supernatural nature of this experience with a phenomenological approach and the separation of the noumenon from the phenomenon and the invention of a word called the numinous. Otto states by expressing the elements present in the experience of the numinous that these elements are necessarily aware of their belonging, even though this belonging is ambiguous and does not enter the structure of understanding. Following Kant, by dividing the real world into perceptible and incomprehensible parts, he considers the numinous as non-perceptible, meaning that the truth of the numinous is inaccessible. Otto saw the truth of religion as the kind of experience that can evoke and transfigure. The unity of religions will mean that religious experience throughout history has a single truth that has manifested itself in various forms. Otto considers revelation in the Abrahamic religions as the manifestation and presence of God in the prophets. He believes that following the lifestyle (act, speech, and lectures) of the prophets, which is the product of this experience, causes us to perceive the presence of God through intuition and feeling.