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nunimous?

PostPosted: April 25th, 2008, 5:04 am
by jan
What is the word C.S. Lewis used to describe that eery feeling we get from the supernatural, and in what book did he write this? It's something like nunimous, but I can't find this word anywhere online. Thanks.

PostPosted: April 25th, 2008, 12:52 pm
by Karen
It's 'numinous'. But it doesn't really mean eerie, rather (as Merriam-Webster puts it), it means:

1) supernatural; mysterious

2) filled with a sense of the presence of divinity

He uses the word in The Problem of Pain, but I'm not sure exactly where.

PostPosted: April 25th, 2008, 3:03 pm
by Stanley Anderson

PostPosted: April 25th, 2008, 4:36 pm
by Karen

Numinous

PostPosted: April 25th, 2008, 6:25 pm
by Jan

PostPosted: April 25th, 2008, 8:51 pm
by Stanley Anderson

Re: nunimous?

PostPosted: April 28th, 2008, 2:59 pm
by Paul F. Ford

Re: nunimous?

PostPosted: June 5th, 2008, 4:29 pm
by splashen

PostPosted: June 20th, 2008, 2:45 pm
by Roonwit
Wasn't the term numinous introduced by Rudolf Otto in The Idea of the Holy?

PostPosted: June 20th, 2008, 4:47 pm
by Karen
According to my OED, the word was first used in a book in 1647.

PostPosted: June 20th, 2008, 6:24 pm
by john

PostPosted: June 20th, 2008, 6:55 pm
by Karen

PostPosted: June 20th, 2008, 7:03 pm
by john

PostPosted: June 20th, 2008, 7:06 pm
by Sven
But Lewis did use the word following Otto's specific technical definition and usage. When Christian Century asked Lewis for the 10 books most influential to his thought, The Idea of the Holy was one of them.