SYMBOL, REAL AND THE SACRED IN THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF MIRCEA ELIADE (1907-1986)

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.

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Abstract

From the idea that man is a “religious being” (homo religious) follows all the basic concepts and ideas of the history of religions as understood by M. Eliade and which inevitably lead to the postulate of the indestructible, absolute unity of the human spirit. The centrality of phenomenology over history in Eliade is reflected in his general understanding of the religious phenomenon as 'hierophany', that means any 'manifestation of the sacred'. Meaning is found in the 'modalities of the sacred' revealed by the hierophany. And the identification of the modalities of the sacred is 'more important' than 'tracing the history of a hierophany. The experience of the sacred as construed by Eliade in terms of coincidentia oppositorum draws inspiration from Rudolf Otto’s notion of mysterium tremendum et fascinans. Eliade asserts that 'myth reveals the actual structure of the divinity, which transcends all attributes and reconciles all contraries'. On the other hand, the symbol has a unifying function, and it highlights the fact that man has a synthetically structured consciousness and that he can intuit the cosmos in a unitary way. Homo religiosus manifests at all levels of culture, the desire to live according to the symbol, so he can be also called «homo symbolicus». Like the sacred, the symbol is a given of the integral consciousness of man. For Eliade the desire to live in the sacred is equated with the desire to possess sacred power and live in objective reality. He equates the sacred with being, hence, the existential desire for the sacred is reflected in a thirst for being. “Homo religiosus always believes that there is an absolute reality, the sacred, which transcends this world but manifests itself in this world, thereby sanctifying it and making it real”.