/lit/ - Literature

>>20709046
i'm only saying that novels are overrated. theology, on the other hand, i would consider to be serious work. rudolf otto is one of my favorite thinkers.
so the real question is, if novels can't compete on intellectual grounds, then shouldn't they at least try to have the most beautiful form possible? when a novelist goes "hur durr, it's SUPPOSED to be bad!" it just confirms that they are a useless idiot. either write well, or gtfo. and if you have something genuinely important to say about the world, then write nonfiction. simple as.

Anyone read Rudolf Otto's "The Idea Of The Holy"?

>explores the psychological-mystic concept of the "Numinous" and "Mysterium Tremendum" which is the irrational phenomenon of a person becoming conscious of a supernatural entity existing or being in their presence
>This is what the "religious experience" is
>Explores how this feeling is brought about, through aesthetics, art, music, or through a series of ideas that a person moves through before being brought to the phenomenon of "Mysterium Tremendum" where they briefly become conscious of a supernatural presence

When I was in college, this book actually converted me to Christianity. We had a theology professor who spent a whole semester studying this book and I found the arguments to be convincing that "God" is real.

>He calls this experience "numinous," and says it has three components. These are often designated with a Latin phrase: mysterium tremendum et fascinans. As mysterium, the numinous is "wholly other"-- entirely different from anything we experience in ordinary life. It evokes a reaction of silence. But the numinous is also a mysterium tremendum. It provokes terror because it presents itself as overwhelming power. Finally, the numinous presents itself as fascinans, as merciful and gracious.