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

Summary/Abstract: From the idea that man is a “religious being” (homo religious) follows all the basicconcepts and ideas of the history of religions as understood by M. Eliade and whichinevitably lead to the postulate of the indestructible, absolute unity of the humanspirit. The centrality of phenomenology over history in Eliade is reflected in hisgeneral 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 thesacred as construed by Eliade in terms of coincidentia oppositorum drawsinspiration from Rudolf Otto’s notion of mysterium tremendum et fascinans. Eliadeasserts that 'myth reveals the actual structure of the divinity, which transcends allattributes and reconciles all contraries'. On the other hand, the symbol has aunifying function, and it highlights the fact that man has a synthetically structuredconsciousness and that he can intuit the cosmos in a unitary way. Homo religiosusmanifests at all levels of culture, the desire to live according to the symbol, so he canbe also called «homo symbolicus».

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