Mircea Eliade on Religion - 1822 Words

Mircea Eliade On Religion Several people find Mircea Eliade’s view on religion similar to Emile Durkheim’s, but in truth, it is similar to Tylor and Frazer’s. One of Eliade’s major works was The Sacred and the Profane. In his writings he explains that his understanding of religion are two concepts: the sacred and the profane. The profane consists of things that are ordinary, random, and unimportant, while the sacred is the opposite. The sacred â€Å"is the sphere of supernatural, of things extraordinary, memorable, and momentous† (Pals 199). When Durkheim mentioned the sacred and the profane, he was concerned about society and its needs. In Eliade’s view, the concern of religion is with the supernatural. To Eliade, the profane doesn’t hold as†¦show more content†¦He believed adamantly in the autonomy of religion. When discussing religion eliade believed religion consisted of the profane and the sacred. The profane consisted everyday business, things ordinary, random, and largely unimportant, whereas the sacred consisted of the supernatural, of things extraordinary, memorable, and momentous. Although the terms of the profane and the sacred are familiar in the works of Durkheim there is a subtle difference in the way they both apply the terms to religion. Durkheim considers the talk of the profane and sacred in the way it makes people aware of their social duties whereas eliade considers the talk of profane and sacred firmly entrenched in the supernatural. Eliade based all his observations of religion on the archaic man. He believes to truly understand and study religion we need to study the archaic man or people in today’s societies who live like the archaic man, those who hunted, fished, and lived off nature as their primary way of life. Archaic man, as eliade suggests, looked to the sacred to provide the very framework within which they think, the values which they admire, an models or ‘archetypes’ th ey choose to follow whenever they act. Eliade supposes that the archaic man chooses to live life in the model of the divine because they have a deep nostalgia for paradise, a longing to be brought close to the gods, a desire to return to the realm of theShow MoreRelatedAboriginal Australia as a Dream Culture738 Words   |  3 PagesAboriginal Australians general culture and their conceptions of â€Å"Dream Time.† In his discussion of religion, Mircea Eliade describes a concept of Cosmos vs Chaos (Eliade 1957). In this notion an unordered world is chaotic only until is it transposed during a sacred time: â€Å"By occupying it and, above all, by settling in it, man symbolically transforms it into a cosmos though a ritual repetition of the cosmogony† (Eliade 1957:31). In other words until a land is tamed or created it is considered unordered. ThisRead MoreHumberto Garcia Religion 110 Professor W. Raver Popol Vuh Myths organize the way we perceive and700 Words   |  3 PagesHumberto Garcia Religion 110 Professor W. Raver Popol Vuh Myths organize the way we perceive and understand our reality. Myths grant stability to a culture, and in this respect; serve to explain the unexplainable. From Barbra Sproul’s perspective, creation myths reveal basic religious concerns pertaining to how the universe was formed, and how people or societies are fashioned. Myths speak of the transcendent and unknowable aspects in a drama that attempt to reveal and give reason to human existenceRead MoreCan a Definition of Religion Be Academically Useful? 630 Words   |  3 PagesA definition of Religion is and can be academically useful. It’s the same as with science as it is with religion, the ability to have a definition, creates academic validity for the subject. One has the ability to point to a certain section or a topic of a book and then support themselves with a fundamental definition. Now the problem that arises in religious studies is that the definition is not always accurate or consistent. Many different a cademic scholars and writers have their own beliefs andRead MoreReligion Provides a Humane Society as a Whole Essay721 Words   |  3 PagesWhere does religion come from and what is its function? This simple question has been studied, defined, and debated by a variety of individuals with differing schools of thought throughout history. Although the conjunction of different ideologies from many of these theorists would provide the most comprehensive solution to this question, Mircea Eliade’s theory as a whole most convincingly addresses this question compared other separate theories as a whole. In particular, Eliade’s emphasis of studyingRead More The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber1103 Words   |  5 PagesWeber saw religion from a different perspective; he saw it as an agent for change. He challenged Marx by saying that religion was not the effect of some economical social or psychological factor. But that religion was used as a way for an explanation of things that cause other things. Because religious forces play an important role in reinforces our modern culture, Weber came to the conclusion that religion serves as both a cause and an effect. Weber didn’t prose a general theory of religion but focusedRead MoreThe Sacred And The Profane2581 Words   |  11 Pagesplaces become associated with a divine presence, and are ultimately labeled as sacred for a particular religion. In The Sacred and the Profane, Mircea Eliade describes the key elements that define a space as sacred rather than profane. He stresses his belief that not all space is homogenous, and that there are certain places that hold more significance and importance than others. Not only that, Eliade also introduces the idea of the axis mundi, a relative center of the earth that serves as a point ofRead MoreChristianity and The Lutheran Religion847 Words   |  3 PagesThe Lutheran religion was originally branched from Christianity, and is a massi ve Protestant denomination currently. Nearly 66 million people worldwide practice this religion (Lutheranism). Lutheran has a membership which exceeds any other Protestant denomination. Germany is the primary Lutheran country, as it was from the start (Martin Luther 1483-1546, BBC). This religion dates back to 1517, the founder of this religion was Martin Luther (McHugh, John). Martin Luther was born on November 10thRead MoreMax Weber’s and Mircea Eliade’s Disagreement with Durkheim, Marx and Freud1730 Words   |  7 Pagestheorists that tried to reduce religion to simple explanations. Marx explained religion as a phenomenon created by economic position meant to give reason to people’s social economic position and thus provide them satisfaction, while they are promised salvation in paradise. Durkheim reduced religion as something created by the social interaction of people, thus making religion a social phenomenon, in which people interact and have rites. Freud, on the other hand, explained religion as being neurotic due toRead MoreEmile Durkheim And Mircea Eliade1117 Words   |  5 PagesÉmile Durkheim and Mircea Eliade have dissimilar understandings of religion. Emile Durkheim did not have an interest in a belief system or the cognitive approach. He dismissed the study of how particular beliefs lead to certain practices and adop ted a functionalist approach. He does not acknowledge the belief in God, rather focuses on what religion does within society. He believed that individuals encompassed a more pure form and focused on the essential structure of religion. His theory of totemismRead MoreThe Interpretation of Aboriginal Dreams 567 Words   |  2 Pageswhen the Supernatural Beings appeared and began to transform the world, wandering across immense territories, producing plants and animals, making man as he is today, giving him his present institutions and ceremonies-this epoch was the â€Å"Dream Time† (Eliade 1957:43). This process unlike Western modes of Dreams does not take place in a slumber state or strictly out of the unconscious thought. Dreams and there psychological origin have been analyzed and interpreted by people such as Freud in The Method