RELS 3714 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Numinous, Mircea Eliade
7 Oct 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Mircea eliade vs. everyone else: perhaps we should account for religion as something natural to human condition a. i. Life can be changed by sacramental experience b. iii. Much can be learned from the folk religions of india"s countryside: would"ve disagreed with marx c. i. Thought that religion was category all its own c. ii. Not influenced by the economy: archaic people d. i. Saw things sacred and eternal in mystery of agriculture d. ii. Viewed existence as cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Eliade"s concept of religion: the sacred and profane: durkheim focuses on society in this definition-eliade doesn"t a. i. Sacred to eliade: concept of sacred not applied to society a. i. 1. Numinous- the feeling of inferiority humans experience when in grips of the sacred a. ii. 1. Brushed against reality they didn"t know existed: myth and archaic people b. i. Because sacred was part of their everyday, woven into myths b. ii. Axis mundi-central pillar around which the world turns b. ii. 1.
