Mircea Eliade’s The Sacred and the Profane: Key Ideas
On this lecture notes, I’ll current the general concept and key ideas of Eliade’s seminal work titled, The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Faith.
However earlier than we dive into the dialogue, let me discuss very briefly about Eliade’s background and well-known works.
Mircea Eliade was born in Romania in 1907. He was one of the crucial influential students of comparative faith within the twentieth century. Eliade loves to check historical spiritual practices, which he referred to as archaic faith, and spent his life selling the sector of the historical past of faith, or comparative faith. As a historian of faith, Eliade observes that even folks immediately who proclaim themselves residents of a very profane world are nonetheless unconsciously nourished by the reminiscence of the sacred. In different phrases, for Eliade, whereas up to date folks consider their world is solely profane or secular, they nonetheless at occasions discover themselves related unconsciously to the reminiscence of one thing sacred. And it’s attention-grabbing to notice that it’s this very concept that each 1) drives Eliade’s exhaustive exploration of the sacred, because it has manifested in area, time, nature and the cosmos, and life itself, and a couple of) underpins his expansive view of the human expertise.
It additionally this very concept that evokes Eliade to put in writing concerning the two modes of being on the planet, that’s, “one being sacred” on the one hand, and being “the profane” then again. It should even be be aware that Eliade advocates for the deserves of sustaining spiritual apply and perception in a secular world.
Eliade’s The Sacred and the Profane is a e book of nice scholarship and originality. Actually, it serves as a superb introduction to the historical past of faith, however its perspective additionally encompasses philosophical anthropology, phenomenology, and psychology.
The e book traces manifestations of the sacred from primitive to trendy occasions by way of area, time, nature, and the cosmos. In doing so he exhibits how the overall human expertise of the spiritual man compares with that of the nonreligious. Certainly, The Sacred and the Profane illustrates Eliade’s views on what it means to be spiritual.
In what follows, I’ll sketch very briefly the general concept and key ideas of this seminal work on the that means, nature, and dynamics of faith.
Eliade begins by describing a binary view of the sacred and the profane, or the spiritual and the secular, drawing clear variations between “homo religiosus” (spiritual folks) and non-religious folks. Nevertheless it have to be famous that by the top of the e book, he blurs the brilliant line between these two, and he finishes by selling a vastly inclusive understanding of what it means to be spiritual and what it means to be human. Therefore, Eliade’s The Sacred and the Profane revises the meanings of the phrases “sacred” and “spiritual”, which is crucial to the trendy examine of faith and has had a robust affect on our understanding of how faith and humanity intersect.
Now, essential to an understanding of Eliade’s The Sacred and the Profane are three classes, particularly: 1) the sacred, 2) hierophay, and three) homo religiosus.
For Eliade, the sacred is one thing that causes one to cease and take discover, simply as Moses stopped when he noticed the burning bush. Eliade writes, “Man [sic] turns into conscious of the sacred as a result of it manifests itself, exhibits itself, as one thing wholly completely different from the profane.” So, if the sacred is one thing that causes one to cease and take discover, in different phrases, one thing that causes us to gaze in awe and marvel, the profane is the homogeneity of regular, quotidian mundaneness. Extra importantly, Eliade makes use of the time period sacred to discuss with transcendent being, just like the gods or God. This explains why Eliade additionally argues that the sacred is the last word reason behind all actual existence.
Hierophany refers back to the breakthrough of the sacred into human expertise. In different phrases, hierophany is the revelation, or the unconcealment of the sacred to people, or the manifestation of the divine. For Eliade, the time period hierophany is broader than the extra acquainted time period, theophany, it permits non-personal types of the divine to grow to be manifest. We should always not miss to contemplate the truth that for Eliade, hierophany doesn’t solely contain the manifestation of the divine, but additionally people’ consciousness of the divine, of the sacred the second the latter reveals itself to the previous.
For Eliade, the sacred can present itself by way of completely different elements or mediums of the bodily world, similar to forests, rivers, mountains, stones, and the like.
Homo religiosus refers back to the being who is ready or prepared to understand and make sense of the hierophany, of the manifestation of the divine. As homo religiosus, subsequently, for Eliade, human beings are inherently spiritual. However for Eliade, this inherent religiosity doesn’t discuss with an individual’s creedal beliefs or institutional commitments per se, however to our existential drive towards transcendence, freedom, and meaning-making, irrespective of the variations of non secular or areligious backgrounds, orientations, or convictions.
In relation to those three classes, we might now point out that one of many main aims of Eliade’s The Sacred and the Profane is to outline the basic opposition between the sacred and the profane. Eliade did this by showcasing the very notion of human thoughts in direction of the sacred and by categorizing individuals into “sacred or archaic beings” and “profane or trendy beings”. And for Eliade, the sacred being is one who seeks, creates, and wishes the sacred area as a way to exist meaningfully, whereas the profane being doesn’t.
One other intention of Eliade in introducing these three categoris is to acquaint his readers with the thought of the numinous, an idea offered in Rudolf Otto’s The Concept of the Holy. The numinous expertise is that have of the sacred which is explicit to spiritual human beings in that it’s experientially overwhelming, encompassing the mysterium tremendum et fascinans, each the awesomely fearful and the enthrallingly fascinating facets of the Holy, or, the Wholly Different. In increasing and expounding the phenomenological dimensions of the sacred, Eliade factors out that the sacred seems in human expertise as an important level of orientation on the identical time it supplies entry to the ontological actuality which is its supply and for which homo religiosus thirsts or longs for.
As we will see, for Eliade, the homo religiosus thirsts or longs for being, for that means. And by way of area, the sacred delineates the demarcation between the sacred and the profane, and thus, locates the axis mundi as middle. That is the rationale why temples, church buildings, and different locations grew to become sacralized for homo religiosus. However since cosmogonic actions as had been performed to start with of human civilization are recapitulated periodically in rituals and myths, then, for Eliade, it’s not solely area that has grow to be sacralized however time as properly. Assume, for instance, of how the Sabbath has been sacralized in Jewish (and a few Christian) traditions.
On Sacredness of Nature and Cosmic Faith
Eliade argues that nature is fraught with spiritual values. Therefore, for Eliade, nature is “by no means solely pure”. It have to be famous that for Eliade, this sacrality will not be merely primarily based on a divine communication that has designated it or consecrated it as sacred, however inside nature are manifestations of the completely different modalities of the sacred within the very construction of the world and of cosmic phenomena. Eliade writes:
The cosmos as an entire is an organism directly actual, residing, and sacred; it concurrently reveals the modalities of being and of sacrality. Ontophany and hierophany meet.
As we will see, as Eliade would have us consider, for the homo religiosus, the supernatural shines by way of the pure, that nature at all times expresses one thing that transcends it.
On Aquatic Symbolism
Eliade turns to the dialogue on aquatic symbolism as a wealthy supply of non secular symbolism. For Eliade, the waters not solely pre-exist the earth as within the Genesis account, however water is without doubt one of the symbolisms by way of which a wide range of spiritual expressions elucidate and make clear the world and painting the transcendent. As Eliade writes: “The waters symbolize the common sum of virtualities; they’re fons et origo, ‘spring and origin’, the reservoir of all the chances of existence; they precede each kind and help each creation.” Lands, particularly however not solely, islands, emerge from the waters. Immersion causes the dissolution of varieties. Water implies each demise and rebirth. The Flood, Periodical Submersion of the Continents similar to within the Atlantis Delusion, Baptisms, and a wide range of hylogonies, that’s, formation of humanity from water, contain, show, and recapitulate “momentary reincorporation into the vague, adopted by a brand new creation, a brand new life, or a ‘new man,’ based on whether or not the second concerned is cosmic, organic, or soteriological.” Actually, Eliade factors out in a number of examples that “The Fathers of the Church didn’t fail to take advantage of sure pre-Christian and common values of aquatic symbolism, though enriching them with new meanings related with the historic existence of Christ.”
It have to be famous that for Eliade, symbols, such because the aquatic image, are pregnant with messages. Certainly, symbols confirmed the sacred by way of the cosmic rhythms.
Additionally, the symbolizations of Terra Mater (or Mom Earth) are replete and pregnant with symbolic implications. It’s the womb, nourisher, sustainer of life par excellence that pulls hymns of reward and gratitude to the Nice and Primordial Mom world-wide. The symbolizations of Mom Earth additionally convey fecundity, era, life, and abundance. For homo religiosus “the looks of life is the central thriller of the world. Life comes from someplace that isn’t this world and at last depart from right here and goes to the past, in some mysterious approach continues in an unknown place inaccessible to nearly all of mortals. This explains why believers or spiritual individuals are satisfied that demise doesn’t put a remaining finish to life. Dying, for them, is however one other modality of human existence.
On Human Existence and Sanctified Life
It have to be remembered that one among Eliade’s primordial goals within the e book is to grasp, and to make comprehensible to others, spiritual particular person’s conduct and psychological universe. Eliade contends that an existence open to the world will not be an unconscious existence “buried in nature”. Openness to the world permits spiritual particular person to know herself in understanding the world and this information is treasured to her as a result of it’s spiritual, as a result of it pertains to being. Eliade additionally contends that within the up to date world, faith as a type of life and Weltanschauung (or worldview) is represented by Christianity. Now, Eliade believes that the entire of human existence is able to being sanctified. After all, the means by which its sanctification is led to are numerous, however the result’s at all times the identical: life is lived on a twofold airplane; it takes its course as human existence and, on the identical time, shares in a transhuman life, that of the cosmos or the gods. Certainly, homo religiosus lives in an open cosmos and is in flip open to the world. And for Eliade, which means, first, he’s in communication with the gods; and second, he shares within the sanctity of the world.
Remaining Remarks
On a remaining be aware, it have to be emphasised that it’s within the nature of the human particular person as a acutely aware being to create, as Eliade places it, a cosmos out of chaos. The inescapable human distinction between sacred and profane happens when the human particular person makes an attempt to floor herself in her world, to acknowledge each her personal subjectivity and the subjective significance of the bodily and temporal areas she inhabits. Therefore, the place the profane guidelines, there’s chaos. In a profane universe, there aren’t any values, no distinctions. However the notion of the sacred emerges with consciousness itself, with the conclusion that this particular person, who I’m, will not be like everybody else, as a result of it’s me. And this area I inhabit will not be like different areas, as a result of it’s the middle of my world; and this time will not be like different occasions, as a result of it’s the time I’m experiencing proper now.
So, on the finish of the day, even when one claims to haven’t any formal spiritual beliefs, the sacred/profane distinction nonetheless makes itself identified. Some locations and occasions, just like the neighborhood of 1’s youth or a reminiscence of a primary love, have a rare private significance which elevates them above the traditional spectrum of area and time. Non secular customs, from probably the most primitive to probably the most refined, are in essence an performing out of this sacralization of the world; and this sacralizing tendency is as elementary to human nature as consciousness itself.
