Summary Of The Sacred And Profane

In chapter one of The Sacred and Profane, Mircea Eliade suggests that the basis of religion depends on the distinction between sacred and profane space. He describes the “sacred” as the opposite of profane, and the profane as any nonreligious, chaotic place or object with no relation to God. According to Eliade, a space “manifests itself, shows itself, as something wholly different from the profane” to be deemed sacred (Eliade, 11). Also known as a hierophany, these supernatural events can occur in an object or at a place such as a tree or a mountain. In Eliade’s explanation of the common process by which a space becomes sacred, after a hierophany occurs that space exists as an axis mundi. For the people on Earth this establishes a connection between heaven, Earth, and the underworld which is consecrated by building a temple or altar to memorialize the event. Eventually, a model of the world with three cosmic levels known as an imago mundi is formed at the sacred space. One of Eliade’s examples is the story of Jacob from the Bible. In Genesis 28, Jacob’s dream of a ladder reaching to heaven and receiving a message from God on his way
A religious man finds an alternative meaning in a space that is sacred and deems it as the “only real and real-ly existing space” (Eliade, 20). He will try to stay close to the pure and holy center of the world and far away from the profane, chaotic world of nothingness. Meanwhile, the cosmos spreads out in four directions and offers a connection with God in the form of a temple, Basilica, or Cathedral. As an example, Eliade points out that the four sections of the Byzantine church symbolizes the four directions, and the interior resembles the universe. Inside, is the Door of Paradise leading where the altar lies. In contrast, a nonreligious man acknowledges the profane and does not try orientate his behavior around the