Awe is the best of man: however the world’s
misprizing of the feeling would prevent us,
deeply we feel, once gripped, the weird uncanny monstrous.
(from Faust, Second Part, Act 1, Scene 5)
This quote is used by Rudolf Otto in his book The Idea of the Holy to help explain the concept of the numinous. For Otto, modern man has lost touch with the fact that the Holy God is beyond us, is the “wholly Other.” As such, this Being is awe-ful, mysterium tremendum, and thus a Force of Power. Yes, God is also good, kind and loving; He is Immanuel. But Otto likes how Goethe expresses it in Faust, the God is “too vast for our faculty of space-perception, such as the immeasurable vault of the night sky.” So, as we move past Halloween, aiming towards Thanksgiving and the coming of the mystery of the God-man Jesus….let awe live in you. It is “the best of man.”