numinosum, at times, turned in the direction of literalism, which tended to exclude the wider symbolic nature of the encounter with the numinosum. Only the liberated function of consciousness pushed this role to a secondary position, which subsequently meant that literalism and the tendency to exclude the wider symbolic nature of any life-concerning phenomena arose as a natural inclination in the early religious minds struggling with the integration of the numinosum;
symbol | ˈsimbəl |
noun
1 a mark or character used as a conventional representation of an object, function, or process
