25 September 1869 A.D. Rudolf Otto Born—Lutheran Theologian
25 September 1869 A.D. Rudolf Otto Born—Lutheran Theologian Meland, Bernard. “Rudolph Otto.” Encyclopedia Britannica. N.d. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/434884/Rudolf-Otto . Accessed 23 May 2014. Rudolf Otto , (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. Early life and academic career. Otto was the son of William Otto, a manufacturer. Little is known of Otto’s early life, except that he was educated at the gymnasium in Hildesheim before becoming a student of theology and philosophy at the University of Erlangen and, later, at the University of Göttingen, where he was made a Privatdozent (“lecturer”) in 1897, teaching theology, history of re...