Mircea Eliade's history of religions rests on the idea that humans are inherently religious beings (homo religiosus), which leads to the postulate of an indestructible, absolute unity of the human spirit. Eliade prioritizes phenomenology over history, understanding religious phenomena as 'hierophany'—any manifestation of the sacred. Meaning is found in the 'modalities of the sacred' revealed by hierophany, and identifying these modalities is more important than tracing a hierophany's history. Eliade's experience of the sacred as coincidentia oppositorum draws from Rudolf Otto's mysterium tremendum et fascinans. Myth reveals the actual structure of divinity, which transcends all attributes and reconciles all contraries.
Mysticism pursues direct, immediate knowledge of God rather than ethical improvement. In Hinduism, union with Brahman is already given but must be consciously realized through salvific gnosis (jñāna) by removing the veil of ignorance (māya) that the world is illusory. The ascetic achieves this through meditative contemplation, recognizing that man is essentially identical to God. Christianity, particularly Eastern Orthodox mysticism, opposes this ontological identity. It postulates an eternal ontological difference between man and God, emphasizing personal transfiguration through divine uncreated energies. God sustains creation as an organic whole through His will, without being present with His being in creation.