Looking into the Holy

“Hollywood” has done an excellent job of portraying demonic evil. Their capacity for scaring the bejeezus out of people by embodying and loosing Satan and his minions to terrorize unsuspecting victims is remarkable. The success of such films taps into the fascination that people have with the holy. Rudolf Otto, in his famous work from the early 20th century, “The Idea of the Holy,” calls the feeling (the “non-rational” response) of people when confronted with “that which is hidden and esoteric, that which is beyond conception or understanding, extraordinary and unfamiliar,” the mysterium tremendum. He argues that this might be a positive response, such as the soul bowing down before the reality of God. But it also “has its wild and demonic forms and can sink to an almost grisly horror and shuddering.” If Otto is correct, then despite the outward denial of many in the West to the reality of demons and the devil (and God), inwardly they are both drawn to and repelled by the idea.

As Christians, we understand why people are compelled by “the holy.” They have been created to worship the one who is not seen, who dwells in unapproachable light, who is neither constrained nor defined by the human. The Fall destroyed our innate capacity to know this one, but our connection with “that which is beyond conception or understanding, extraordinary and unfamiliar” remains. And when the veil is drawn back, if only by the imagination of a filmmaker, that connection is aroused and people are frightened.

How different our state, then, when we are, by his grace, reconciled to God. Not only has our capacity to know him been restored, but we long to see him face to face, not looking away or hiding from his majesty. And united to Christ, who sits at the right hand of the Almighty, we can face the evil hosts when they creep out from the shadows threatening us harm. In Christ, we have complete assurance that there is no “created thing,” not even angels, rulers, or powers, that “will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!” Clothed in the reality of this truth, we can “stand against the schemes of the devil,” knowing that he and his cohort are destined for the pit, there to remain forever.