The Numinous as the Holy One

The worshiper encounters God as the Holy One, who is beyond rational comprehension. There is a quality to this encounter that transcends revelation in terms of language, symbols, or concepts. The Sense of the Numinous The biblical worshiper experiences the holiness of God-holiness, not in the moralized sense of that which is perfectly good, but holiness in the primitive, generic sense of that which is "separated, set apart. " This is the underlying meaning of the Hebrew root q-d-sh as the basis for qodesh,"holiness"; qadosh,"holy"; qadash,"be consecrated"; and miqdash,"sanctuary. " As applied to the Lord, his holiness means that he is unlike anything pertaining to the common or mundane. He is overpowering, majestic, fascinating, mysterious. He is beyond the grasp of rational comprehension yet directly sensed in his dreadful and awesome aspect. His presence compels a spontaneous and intuitive response of worship. For this original and basic element of the holy, in 1917 the histori…