«Un sentimento di terrore e di raccapriccio».  Adriano Tilgher e il ‘numinoso’ di Rudolf Otto

After an essential reconstruction of some crucial junctures concerning the reception of Rudolf Otto’s work Das Heilige, the essay focuses on the analysis of Otto’s concept of ‘numinous’, as it emerges in the interpretation given to it by the Italian philosopher Adriano Tilgher. Compared to other intellectuals who, such as Buonaiuti, had emphasised its ethical character, Tilgher emphasises the repulsive dimension of the numinous (exemplified by the Latin term ‘tremendum’). Reconnecting with certain interpretative strands of the time, Tilgher thus seems to emphasise the irrationalistic and demonic character of religious experience, which becomes a manifestation of that time of crisis of which he was one of the most incisive and prophetic analysts.