Mystery, Tremendum, Fascinans
Tucker Frye
Rudolf Otto came up with a few terms that express what it is like to experience the sacred. He describes it using these words: Mystery, Tremendum, and Fascinans. There is a great mystery about the sacred that draws us in. We can experience the sacred but we never truly know what it is made up of or how to recreate it. We are drawn to it because of it's power and it is this power that terrifies us. The sacred can be so great and terrible that we are forced to turn away, even though we cannot help but move closer. There is a tree in Richmond that stands by the James River. It has footholds up it's trunk and a long branch extending over the water nearly twenty-five from the ground. Climbing the tree is the easy part. The hard part comes as you stare out over the branch and see a long stretch of air and then a dark green sheet. The sight is terrifying, and yet you know there is only one way down that will fulfill your desires: jumping out into thin air, then plunging into the water below. While the experience is not always sacred (though sometimes it is), the experience reflects the ideas of Otto. You are terrified of the height and magnitude of what you are about to do, but you cannot turn and climb back down the tree because of your overwhelming desire to be free.
No comments:
Post a Comment