The UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will hold a Conference on “The Holy in a Pluralistic World: Rudolf Otto’s Legacy in the Twenty-First Century.” Rudolf Otto, author of the classic The Idea of the Holy (org. 1917; Eng. trans., 1923), is best known today for his analysis of numinous experience — he coined the word “numinous” — as a mysterium tremendum et fascinans. He was also one of the most important and sophisticated European thinkers of the last century to broach topics of religious diversity. This conference will examine Otto’s theoretical and practical legacy with regard to religious pluralism, with special emphasis on Abrahamic religions, a topic relatively neglected in Otto studies. The goals of the conference are both to understand Otto in his context and to examine his potential significance today for interreligious relations as well as the academic understanding of religions
The conference will be held Wednesday, November 5 and Thursday, November 6, 2014 at the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St., University of Wisconsin–Madison.