Since the epoch-making publication of The Idea of the Holy,
an ever-growing circle waits with eagerness for Professor Rudolf Otto's works. But those who trustfully acquire The Philosophy of Religion, translated by E. B. Dicker (Williams and Norgate, 10s.) have a disappointment in store. They might reasonably hope for a methodical exposition of the meta- physics and theology of the " numinous ", written from the standpoint the author has now attained, and giving his latest conclusions on the subject-matter of faith. What they will get is a comparatively immature work, first published in 1909 ; and mainly dealing with the work of the philosopher Fries, and the application of his doctrine of Ahnung to the central pro- blems of theology. The book has a certain interest as repre- senting a stage in the evolution of Otto's thought ; but other- wise little of value to give his modern readers. It was perhaps hardly worth the labour of translation, in view of the far more characteristic and important contributions to religious philo- sophy which he has since produced. There would be no ground for complaint in all this, however, were it not that neither publisher nor translator have seen fit to give the slightest indication of the date at which the book was written, or its place in the sequence of Otto's work : a suppression of facts as unjust to its distinguished author as to the unwary reader, who will naturally suppose it to represent the latest fruit of his mind.
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