OTTO, RUDOLF

born Sept. 25, 1869, Peine, Prussia died March 6, 1937, Marburg, Ger. German theologian, philosopher, and historian of religion, who exerted worldwide influence through his investigation of man's experience of the holy. Das Heilige (1917; The Idea of the Holy, 1923) is his most important work. Additional reading Robert F. Davidson, Rudolf Otto's Interpretation of Religion (1947); S.P. Dubey, Rudolf Otto and Hinduism (1969); Philip C. Almond, Rudolf Otto: An Introduction to His Philosophical Theology (1984).