Krastu Banev: The Numinous in the Fourth Century Patristic Tradition: Abraham, John Chrysostom and Rudolf Otto in Dialogue

This paper examines Rudolf Otto’s use of John Chrysostom's homilies On the Incomprehensible Nature of God. In relation to the historical details of Chrysostom’s career, the reader is well served by recent scholarship. In the field of religious studies, however, Rudolf Otto’s appropriation of patristic material has not been the subject of scholarly investigation. This gap in the academic record invites the speculation that Otto’s conclusions are in agreement with the basic positions of those few patristic authors he uses in his work. Thus, in the rare occasion when Otto is cited in patristic scholarship it is with a nod of approval. It is against this perceived concordance that I will be advancing a claim for a disagreement between Otto and Chrysostom. The case will be built by examining their approaches to scripture and, in particular, to the story of the patriarch Abraham to demonstrate that, in the final analysis, Chrysostom did not exercise a discernible influence over Otto’s thought. The homilies ‘On the Incomprehensible’ were used by Otto to provide illustrations for his theory of the ‘holy’ without being allowed to challenge it. My submission is that they do challenge it on the crucially important issue of Biblical interpretation and thus do not allow for uncritical application of Otto’s insights for the understanding of the inner theological coherence of Chrysostom’s texts.