A Comparative Study of Sayyed Heydar Amoli's and Rudolf Otto's Phenomenological Approaches to the Sacred

The main difference between religion and other kinds of phenomena is its sacredness. In this paper we will compare the phenomenological approaches to "The Sacred" maintained by two Muslim and Christian thinkers, Sayyed Heydar Amolia and Rudolf Otto. First we will explain what is meant by phenomenology. Secondly we will discuss different phenomenological attitudes (especially emotional and intellectual ones) to the phenomenon of the sacred. Finally we will compare the two mentioned thinkers on this subject. It will be shown that both of them reject the reductionalism and both see the sacred as "self- evident". Sayyed emphasizes on both emotional and intellectual attitudes but Otto's emphasis is only on emotional attitude.