Religion is Sacred

Mircea Eliade

(1907-1986)

Mircea Eliade1907-1986

Romanian born

University of Chicago Divinity

School

Established the “History of

Religions” approach

Major figure in establishment of

Religious Studies as an academic

discipline in the U.S. during the

1960s-80s.

Two Axioms

1. Religion functions as a cause and must

be grasped at its own level.

– Religion as religion (not society, psychology,

etc)

– sui generis

2. Religion should be understood through

comparison of patterns.

Archaic Man

• “Primitive” cultures

• Divides the world into Sacred/Profane

• Seeks to live in the sacred world

• Modern man has desacralized the

cosmos.

The Sacred & The Profane

Sacred• The opposite of the

profane

• Ganz andere -

“completely different”

• Powerful

• Reality - “really real”

Profane• Everyday life

Hierophany

Axis Mundi

Symbols

Symbols

• All profane things can become symbols

• Infusion of the sacred into natural objects

• “dialectic of the sacred”

• Myths are symbols in narrative form

Archtypes

• Sky

• Sun and Moon

• Water

• Earth

• Symbols and myths are always extending

themselves out

– village tree becomes axis mundi

History of religions

• Compares religions to discover archtypes

• Find and trace the patterns of the sacred

• Trace changing meanings over time

• Interprets not explains