Otto’s criticisms of Schleiermacher

An assessment is made of Rudolf Otto’s criticisms of FriedrichSchleiermacher’s claim that religious feeling is to be interpreted as essentiallyinvolving a feeling of absolute dependence. Otto’s criticisms are divided into twokinds. The first suggest that a feeling a dependence, even an absolute one, is thewrong sort of feeling to locate at the heart of religious consciousness. It is arguedthat this criticism is based on misinterpretations of Schleiermacher’s view, which isin fact much closer to Otto’s than the latter appreciated. The second kind of criticismsuggests that the feeling of absolute dependence cannot play the foundational roleassigned to it by Schleiermacher, since it is itself a secondary response. It is arguednot only that Otto provides no justification for this criticism, but that Otto’s ownposition is incoherent unless Schleiermacher’s view is accepted