Dr. Rudolf Otto, who died in 1937, was one of the most distinguished German theologians of this century. Perhaps his best-known book was Das Heilige, which ran through ten editions in Germany before being published in an English translation in 1924 under the title, The Idea of the Holy. The present work, entitled in German Reichgottes und Menschensohn, created an even greater impression, and has had to be reckoned with in all subsequent studies of the person and work of Jesus Christ, particularly on the point of his
Messianic self-consciousness.
The English translation was first published in 1938. This is a reprint of the substantially revised edition of 1943.