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The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion

Book by Mircea Eliade · 14 quotes · Religion, Mito, Sagrado

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The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion Quotes

“The perspective changes completely when the sense of the religiousness of the Cosmos becomes lost. This is what occurs when, in certain more highly evolved societies, the intellectual élites progressively detach themselves from the patterns of the traditional religion. Periodical sanctification of cosmic time then proves useless and without meaning. The gods are no longer accessible through the cosmic rhythms. The religious meaning of the repetition of paradigmatic gestures is forgotten. But repetition emptied of its religious content necessarily leads to a pessimistic vision of existence. When it is no longer a vehicle for reintegrating a primordial situation, and hence for recovering the mysterious presence of the gods, that is, when it is desacralized, cyclic time becomes terrifying; it is seen as a circle forever turning on itself, repeating itself to infinity.”

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“As we have said before, for religious man nature is never only natural. Experience of a radically desacralized nature is a recent discovery; moreover, it is an experience accessible only to a minority in modem societies, especially to scientists. For others, nature still exhibits a charm, a mystery, a majesty in which it is possible to decipher traces of ancient religious values. No modern man, however irreligious, is entirely insensible to the charms of nature. We refer not only to the esthetic, recreational, or hygienic values attributed to nature, but also to a confused and almost indefinable feeling, in which, however, it is possible to recognize the memory of a debased religious experience.”

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“En resumen, la mayoría de los hombres -sin religión- comparten aún pseudo religiones y mitologías degradadas. Cosa que en nada nos asombra, desde el momento en que el hombre profano es el descendiente del homo religiosus y no puede anular su propia historia, es decir, los comportamientos de sus antepasados religiosos, que lo han constituido tal como es hoy día.”

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“Omul religios, chiar şi cel mai „primitiv”, nu se împotriveşte progresului, în principiu, ci îl acceptă, atribuindu-i însă o origine şi o dimensiune divine. Tot ceea ce, din perspectiva modernă, ni s-ar părea aducător de „progres” (de orice fel – social, cultural, tehnic şi aşa mai departe) în comparaţie cu o situaţie anterioară, a fost asumat de către societăţile primitive în decursul lungii lor istorii, ca un şir de revelaţii divine.”

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