The Concept of the Coincidentia Oppositorum in the Thought of Mircea Eliade
Author(s): John Valk
Source: Religious Studies , Mar., 1992, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Mar., 1992), pp. 31-41
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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Rel. Stud. 28, pp. 31-41
JOHN VALK
THE CONCEPT OF THE COINCIDENTIA
OPPOSITORUM IN THE THOUGHT OF
MIRCEA ELIADE
I. PARADOX AND THE COINCIDENTIA OPPOSITORUM
Eliade, the well-known and prolific historian of religion, has himself of l
become an object of intense study. In his endeavours he sought to un
the deeper, trans-historical meaning of religious expression. He intro
the term ' creative hermeneutics ' in his more recent writings, and was m
intent on discovering what the religious phenomena 'had to say'.
Eliade's unique approach, however, is not without its difficulties. Sch
have struggled with his entire corpus. Some wonder whether he does
force his own view of reality and religion, his own terms and concepts, u
the various traditions he analyses. Martin Marty, for example, has conclu
that 'in order to join together such disparate materials, the Romanian
scholar has imposed his own beliefs and ideas about religiousness'.1 Do
Allen stressed that 'all of Eliade's evaluations of religious phenomena ar
on the same "level" of analysis nor that all can be subsumed under
classification of "descriptive analysis".'2
Attempts have been made to uncover Eliade's own particular vie
reality. Kurt Rudolph believes that Eliade's thought rests upon seve
elements that are ' apparently fundamental components of his worldview
( 1) the opposition between the sacred and the profane as the basis of relig
(2) symbolism as the primary means of religious expression; (3) prehi
as the fundamental, decisive epoch in the history of religions ; and (4) ho
religiosus as the allegedly ideal form of humanity.3 Ansgar Paus, on the
hand, concludes that the integrating nucleus of Eliade's complex indiv
method does not come from philosophy nor the science of religi
emerges, rather, from his own specific theology : Eastern Orthodox Christ
ity and its rich iconological symbolism.4
Adriana Berger assists us further by pointing to the importance of lite
ture in Eliade's writings. She speaks of his 'double approach', where cu
1 Review of Mircea Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas by Martin E. Marty, in New York Times, 15
I979' I5'
2 Douglas Allen, Structure and Creativity in Religion (The Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1978), p. 204.
3 Kurt Rudolph, 'Mircea Eliade and the "History" of Religions' in Religion, xix (1989), 101-27, trans,
by Gregory D. Alles, 108.
4 Ansgar Paus, 'The Secret Nostalgia of Mircea Eliade for Paradise: Observations on the Method of
the "History of Religions" ' in Religion, xix (1989), 137-49.
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32 JOHN VALK
and knowledge imply the religious. This 'double approach' is really a desire
for unity. It is a matter not only of 'cosmicizing our knowledge' (of harmon?
izing death, history and becoming), but of 'reconciling two apparently
conflicting aspects, the letters and the sciences, within the coincidentia oppo?
sitorum \b
Berger alludes to Eliade's use of the concept of the coincidentia oppositorum,
but it is not developed. However, in Eliade's own words it is 'one of the most
archaic manners by which the paradox of divine reality expressed itself'.6
It is not surprising, therefore, that we see such frequent use of this term in
Eliade's writings. Myths and rituals 'imply the absolute coincidentia oppo?
sitorum'.7 Symbols express the paradoxical coming together of contradictory
essences.8 The jivan-mukti 'constitutes a coincidentia oppositorum', which can
'uncover the secret dimension of reality'.9 The tantrist is capable of achieving
the coincidentia oppositorum 'on all levels of Life and Consciousness'.10 And the
list goes on. Yet, little attention has been focused by scholars on Eliade's use
of this concept. Might his use of the coincidentia oppositorum throw more light
on the present discussion?
Eliade's use of the two fundamental terms, sacred and profane, indicate
clearly that he is a 'dialectical thinker'. What is not clear is the manner in
which we are to understand his use of these terms. Their coming together
into a unity of opposites, identified by the concept coincidentia oppositorum,
reflects, he believes, the way religious people view the structure of reality.
This theme, he asserts, emerges in virtually all religious patterns.
His frequent use of and reliance on this concept raises a question. Does
Eliade discover the principle of the coincidentia oppositorum in greater or lesser
degree in every religion because it is close to the structure of his own thought
or worldview and the means by which he interprets religious phenomena?
An examination of Eliade's works with this question in mind and this concept
in the foreground will generate new insights into a scholar who himself has
given us tremendous insights into religious phenomena. It will also serve as
an additional component to the four mentioned by Rudolph, and expand
Ansgar Paus's notion that Eliade's integrating nucleus is the theological. A
worldview by nature is religious, which in turn includes philosophical and
theological ideas and concepts (knowledge).
5 Adriana Berger, 'Eliade's Double Approach', Religious Studies Review, n (January 1985), 9.
6 Mircea Eliade, Oceanografie (Bucharest: Cultura Poporului, 1934), pp. 214-15.
7 Mircea Eliade, Mephistopheles and the Androgyne, trans, by J. M. Cohen (New York: Harper and Row,
1965), P- "5
8 Mircea Eliade, Images and Symbols, trans, by Philip Mairet (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1969), p.
177
9 Mephistopheles, pp.94-6. See also Mircea Eliade, Toga : Immortality and Freedom, trans, by Willard R.
Trask (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969), p. 363.
10 Mephistopheles, pp. 117-18. See also Toga, p. 206.
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MIRCEA ELIADE'S THOUGHT 33
(a) The Paradoxical Relationship
For Eliade the relationship between the sacred and profane is not dualistic,
but paradoxical. The hierophany reveals this paradoxical coming together,
and 'makes manifest, the co-existence of contradictory essences'.11 Human
reason cannot grasp this conceptually. Language at this point fails us. The
abiding presence of absolute reality in something finite, limited and changing
can only be expressed in terms of a paradoxical relationship.
People become aware of the sacred through their own concrete (profane)
situation. But the sacred mode is not an additional dimension, nor is it
distinct from or unrelated to one's 'ordinary' way of being in the world: life
'is not merely human, it is at the same time cosmic'.12
The sacred mode of existence is a human existence. It is also a celestial
ascent: it 'belongs to man as such, not to man as an historical being'.13 But,
the two modes of being - sacred and profane - take place ' simultaneously
upon two parallel planes; that of the temporal, of change and of illusion, and
that of eternity, of substance and of reality'.14
(b) Nature of the Paradoxical Relationship
How are we best to understand Eliade's notion of the paradox? On the one
hand, the sacred and profane are mutually exclusive and logically contra?
dictory. Sacred reality contradicts profane reality: eternal and temporal,
being and non-being, absolute and relative. On the other hand, however,
the sacred needs the profane as the medium through which it is revealed and
apprehended. The sacred cannot do without the profane, nor can the profane
do without the sacred if it is to be fully 'opened up'. The sacred and profane
are also mutually complementary. In the hierophany the sacred and profane
occur simultaneously. There they are both contradictory and complemen?
tary. They are simultaneously mutually exclusive and logically contradictory,
and mutually complementary. This is the essence of the paradox.
Thomas Altizer understands Eliade as emphasizing only one side of the
11 Mircea Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, trans, by Rosemary Sheed (New York : New American
Library, 1958), p. 29.
Mac Linscott Ricketts is helpful in shedding light on Eliade's notion of paradox. See ' Mircea Eliade
and the Death of God', in Religion in Life, xxxvi (1967).
12 According to Eliade archaic humankind did not make a separation between the 'spiritual' and the
' material '. These ' two planes are complementary ', Images and Symbols, p. 177. See also Mircea Eliade, The
Quest: History and Meaning in Religion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969), i, and Mircea Eliade,
The Sacred and Profane, trans, by Willard Trask (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1959), p. 165.
13 Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstacy, trans, by Willard R. Trask (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1964), p. xiv.
A sacred mode of existence presupposes the whole human being - social, economic, aesthetic, and
ethical aspects. Yet, its aspects do not of themselves constitute the whole, Images and Symbols, pp. 32-3,
and The Sacred and Profane, pp. 14?15.
14 Patterns, p. 460. Seymour Cain points out that in Eliade's usage the ' transhistorical ' or sacred mode
' does not refer simply to a supermundane realm, but also to human nature as distinguished from human
history'. Seymour Cain, 'Mircea Eliade: Attitudes Toward History', Religious Studies Review, vi (January
1980), 15.
2 RES 28
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34 JOHN VALK
paradox, that the sacred negates the profane.15 Ricketts points out, however,
that such a 'negative dialectic' misses Eliade's point, and is Altizer's 'first
fundamental error in interpreting Eliade'.16 Robert Avens interprets Eliade
in a similar manner to Altizer. According to him the sacred would obliterate
the reality of the profane. These two opposites cannot really co-exist without
the one negating or excluding the other.17
Both Altizer and Avens emphasize one pole of the paradox at the expense
of the other. Allen sees this correctly as destroying the dialectical complexity
of the religious mode of manifestation, leading inevitably to an over?
simplification and distortion of Eliade's phenomenological method.18 To
understand Eliade more fully it is necessary to retain both sides of the
paradox. Here the concept of the coincidentia oppositorum comes into play.
(c) Coincidentia Oppositorum: Heuristic Device
The coincidentia oppositorum, according to Eliade, is reflected in the symbols,
theories and beliefs of many different religious traditions. The fundamental
doctrines contained in the myths and legends which reflect this concept have
their source in those trained in theology and philosophy. And, 'the meta?
physical implications of the coincidentia oppositorum are clearly understood and
accepted [by them]'.19
Eliade admits that most cultures do not consciously apply the principle of
the coincidentia oppositorum. Yet, according to him, it is used even if it is not
realized. This gives us the initial indication that this principle may be used
as a heuristic device by Eliade, enabling him to use a concept which, though
often more abstract than intended, is nonetheless applicable to the various,
and often quite diverse, religious phenomena. His use of the coincidentia
oppositorum reveals the two-fold implication of the paradox : simultaneously
mutually exclusive and logically contradictory, and mutually complemen?
tary. Some examples will suffice.
In Indian Spirituality the jivan-mukti, the man 'liberated while living',
is simultaneously in time and in eternity ; his existence is a paradox in the sense that
it constitutes a coincidentia oppositorum beyond the understanding or the imagination.20
The religious person can realize the ' coincidentia oppositorum in his own body
and his own spirit', and 'uncover the secret dimension of reality'.21
In the mythical theme of the androgyne a new type of humanity appears;
the fusion of both sexes produces a new unpolarized consciousness. Implied
is the idea that perfection, and therefore Being, ultimately consists of a
15 Thomas Altizer, Mircea Eliade and the Dialectic of the Sacred (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1963),
p. 65. See also pp. 34, 39, 46 and passim.
16 For Ricketts the relationship is 'more paradoxical than dialectic'. See Ricketts, p. 45.
17 Robert Avens, 'Mircea Eliade's Conception of the Polarity "Sacred-Profane" in Archaic religions
and in Christianity' (Ph.D. thesis, Fordham University, 1971), pp. 52, 70. 18 Allen, p. 126.
19 Mephistopheles, p. 82. 20 Mephistopheles, pp. 95-5. See also Toga, p. 363.
21 Mephistopheles, pp. 95-6. See also Toga, pp. 5, 10, 18, 54, 66, 98-100.
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MIRCEA ELIADE'S THOUGHT 35
unity-totality; 'carrying the coincidentia oppositorum to all levels and applying
it to all contexts. '22 Myths dealing with primordial totality, and the rituals
corresponding to them, may not be the same in every case, nonetheless, they
'imply the absolute coincidentia oppositorum'}*
In Tantrism the yogin is capable of achieving the coincidentia oppositorum 'on
all levels of Life and Consciousness'.24 All relative existence implies a state
of duality, consequently resulting in suffering, illusion and 'slavery'. The
final goal of the Tantricist is to unite the two contrary principles, Shiva and
Shakti, where ' the experience of duality is abolished and the phenomenal
world is transcended'.25
In alchemy the Philosopher's Stone is equated with a perfect knowledge
of God, while at the same time revealing and making apparent the opposites
existing within reality. According to Eliade this is all part and parcel of ' the
very old symbolism of the coincidentia oppositorum, universally widespread and
well attested in primitive stages of culture'.26
id) Significance of the Coincidentia Oppositorum
Eliade presents a whole class of phenomena in which he discovers the
meanings implicit in the concept of the coincidentia oppositorum. Its frequent
use to describe and illuminate the notion of paradox draws attention to the
fact that he discovers an element that is widespread in religious consciousness.
At the same time we are drawn to the importance of this concept in his own
thinking.
That it is important becomes evident in the way he spots this concept
emerging in the Western philosophical tradition. In Heraclitus it first re?
ceives philosophical elaboration, and strikes Eliade as most telling. Herac?
litus speculated that ' God is day and night, winter and summer, war peace,
satiety hunger - all opposites, this is the meaning'.21 Elide sensed that Heraclitus
developed a view based on a reconciliation of opposites which, once accepted,
made sense of archaic mythologies and Indian spirituality.
Eliade discovered a similar pattern in Meister Eckhart. But it was Nicholas
of Cusa who called the union of contraries and the mystery of the totality the
coincidentia oppositorum. Nicholas was important for Eliade because he was able
to ground the infinite distinction between God (the sacred) and all things
finite (the profane) metaphysically, precisely in the coincidentia oppositorum.28
Elide's basic conceptual pattern is quite similar to the tradition of these
theologian-philosophers. His conclusion that the coincidentia oppositorum shows
up in so many diverse cultures and situations gives indication that this
22 Mephistopheles, p. io?.
23 Mephistopheles, p. 115. See also the discussions on the symbolism of ascension in Mircea Eliade, Myths,
Dreams and Mysteries, trans, by Philip Mariet (New York: Harper and Brothers, i960), pp. 99fr.
24 Mephistopheles, pp. 117-18. See also Toga, p. 206.
25 Mephistopheles, p. 118. See also Toga, pp. 96, 135, 206, 257, 268-72.
26 Mircea Eliade, The Forge and the Crucible, trans, by Stephen Corrin (New York : Harper and Brothers,
1962), p. 166. 27 Mephistopheles, p. 81, fn. 1. 28 Mephistopheles, pp. 80-1, 205-6.
2-2
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36 JOHN VALK
concept may enter strongly into his own thinking. This is borne out in his
discussions of symbolism and ritual.
Characteristic of the symbol, according to Elide, is its ability to express not
only the 'absolute', but also the paradoxical coming together of contradic?
tory essences. The concepts of polarity and the coincidentia oppositorum have
wide usage in the history of philosophy. The symbols which revealed these
concepts, however, are not products of critical reflection but of an existential
tension.
Characteristic of the ritual is its ability to open up the vast wealth of
information about the nature of reality which is incomprehensible on any
other level of perception, including the rational. Eliade's focus on rituals is
not incidental. Here the religious experience is realized in its opposition to,
and yet in harmony with, profane experience. This explains his emphasis on
the forge and the crucible, and his predilection for rope analogies and tantric
yoga. In the latter one can find the same traditional metaphysics, 'which
refused to define ultimate reality otherwise than as the coincidentia oppo?
sitorum' .2?
In numerous cases Eliade uses this concept, both implicitly and explicitly,
to give a more heightened explanation of the paradox. Guilford Dudley feels
that it is only by means of a thorough understanding of the principles of yoga
in Indian thought that one is able to understand Eliade's ontology.30 Dudley
raises an important point. It is not, however, the principles of yoga as such
which are crucial to Eliade's thinking. It is the pattern which yoga instanti?
ates that is important to his framework, and it is the coincidentia oppositorum as
exemplified in yoga that sheds light on it. Thus, a thorough understanding
of this concept assists greatly in grasping the unity and consistency of Eliade's
thought. It is in his interpretation of history, however, that we get a clear
glimpse of its implications for his own worldview.
II. POTENTIAL OF HISTORY VERSUS NOSTALGIA FOR PARADISE
Eliade asserts that a ' self-contradictory attitude ' occurs in all relig
the one hand there is the desire to secure and strengthen one's own
in the sacred. On the other hand there is the fear that individuality m
lost if one is absorbed completely in the sacred. This becomes for
himself an ambivalence towards history. He recognizes that the pr
historical condition is necessary to reveal the sacred. Nonetheless, h
cludes that a full experience of the sacred entails abolishing profane ex
His attitude towards history includes both rejection and affirmation
Cain asserts that this rejecting and affirming of history results from
own method : the historical-cultural gives way to the ' trans-historical
29 Toga, p. 272. See also Mephistopheles, p. 118.
30 Guilford Dudley, Religion on Trial: Mircea Eliade and His Critics (Philadelphia: Temple Un
Press, 1977), p. 105.
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MIRCEA ELIADE'S THOUGHT 37
tionality'.31 However, it is not his focus on the trans-historical intentionality
itself that reflects the ambivalence ; it is the way he interprets this inten?
tionality. That intentionality has been displayed in the history of religions in
both positive and negative attitudes towards the unfolding of time and
history.
(a) Rejection of History
When Eliade examines the ' archetypal lifestyle ' of archaic humankind he
focuses mainly on the implied rejection of all that is profane, including time
and history. To be archetypal was to be anti-historical and nostalgic for
Paradise. History, on the other hand, was regarded 'in some measure [as] a
fall of the sacred, a limitation and a diminution'.32
Allen feels that Eliade is here simply reflecting the view of archaic
humankind.33 Cain disagrees. He asserts that Eliade's own worldview is
implicit in this interpretation of history.34 Eliade's understanding of the
Hebrew view of history bears that out.
(b) Hebrew View of History
For the Hebrews the historical event became a theophany; the sacred was
revealed in history. History became a dimension of the sacred* Each historical
event was a further and irreversible revelation of God. Humans were able to
advance their knowledge and experience of the sacred through history.35
This positive and linear view of history was, however, only momentary for
Eliade. He feels that the Hebrews were not entirely successful in transcending
the cyclical pattern. They too longed for the end of history, and tolerated it
only because it was known that it would one day cease. Their 'paradisial
state' was at the beginning and at the end of the historical period.36
Eliade's understanding of the Hebrew view again reflects two sides of the
paradox. History becomes a means to the sacred, yet it is also to be abolished.
It can be distracting; its peace and prosperity often caused the people to turn
away from God. That same paradox surfaces in his interpretation of Christi?
anity.
(c) Time and History in Christianity
For Christianity the Kingdom of God was not just a future possibility: it was
also attainable at any moment. The coinciding of opposites - the Kingdom
of God and the human historical situation - was accessible to any one at any
time through metanoia.
Christianity's most striking innovation was its valorization of time. Time
itself is ontologized, through God's revelation in the person of Jesus Christ.
This uniqueness is not simply the ' hierophanising ' of time, familiar in all
religions, but the complete concealing of the divine in history. Christianity
31 Cain, p. 14.
32 Shamanism, p. xix, and Mircea Eliade, Cosmos and History: The Myth of the Eternal Return, trans, by
Willard R. Trask (New York: Harper and Row, 1959), p. 158. 33 Allen, p. 129.
34 Cain, p. 14-16. 35 Cosmos and History, pp. 102-7. 36 Cosmos and History, p. in.
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38 JOHN VALK
strives to save history by seeing its trans-historicity. History is filled with
trans-historical meaning.37
With ever increasing innovations in religious activities and experiences,
resulting from continued multiplicity and diversity in temporal reality, a
more heightened experience of the coincidentia oppositorum becomes possible
with the passage of time. Although it may often be more difficult to 'see' the
unity amidst the multiplicity and diversity, nonetheless, when the coincidentia
oppositorum is experienced, it is experienced as having been ' raised ' to a newer
and more 'complete' level.
Christianity too provides a promise of freedom. It allows for the possibility
of a sanctified future historical condition through faith.
Faith... means absolute emancipation from any kind of natural 'law' and hence the
highest freedom that man can imagine : freedom to intervene even in the ontological
constitution of the universe. It is, consequently, a pre-eminently creative freedom.
In other words, it constitutes a new formula for man's collaboration with the
creation.38
Eliade senses that the study of the history of religions can play a significant
role in realizing a heightened coincidentia oppositorum. A new humanism on a
world-wide scale could develop based on this deeper knowledge, and Judaeo
Christianity has shown 'in what sense history might become glorious and
even absolute'.39 Here Eliade emphasizes again the positive role of history.
Unfortunately, he is not able to accept the full implications of these
significant changes and potentials brought by Christianity. Sharing in the
eternal nunc of the reign of God implies for him that history ceases as totally
as it does for those of archaic cultures. Judaeo-Christianity continues to retain
'certain traces of the ancient doctrine of periodic regeneration of history'.40
Christianity brought no real innovation ; it also implies a paradoxical return
in Mud tempus, 'a leap backwards'.41
Here Eliade's paradoxical understanding again becomes clear. The Christ
event which has redeemed history has, in fact, ultimately abolished it. When
humankind experiences the 'favourable moment' in time and history, time
is paradoxically transformed into eternity. Concretely the valorization of
time is its abolition, and the abolishing of history is its fulfilment. Here in a
heightened way Eliade emphasizes the coincidentia oppositorum, the coinciding
of time and eternity, but in a manner which tends to highlight a negative
rather than a positive acceptance of history.
{d) Continuity and Innovation
In spite of Christianity's more positive emphasis on history, Eliade's am?
bivalence indicates his often uncomfortable feelings with history. While
history provides the possibility for further and fuller revelations of the sacred,
37 Images and Symbols, pp. 169-71. 38 Cosmos and History, pp. 160-1.
39 Images and Symbols, p. 66. See also Quest, p. 3. 40 Cosmos and History, pp. 129-30.
41 Images and Symbols, pp. 168-72.
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MIRCEA ELIADE'S THOUGHT 39
and the coinciding of opposites in time and history, he sees further historical
unfolding as a threat to the struggle for a sanctified mode of being.
For the modern person the sacred has become lost or meaningless. We are
all too often ' swallowed up ' by the multiplicity and diversity of human
unfolding in time and history. Eliade is afraid that we have become lost in
history, that we see only fragmentation and not the trans-historical meaning
in historical events. The terrors of history become overwhelming.
But, Eliade should have no such fear. Although it is quite possible to
become epistemologically lost in the multiplicity and diversity of history, this
should ultimately be of little concern. Those of faith can experience the
coincidentia oppositorum at any time. How this occurs is mysterious; what is
important is that it can occur.
We come to discover Eliade's reluctance to develop fully the positive aspect
of history. After the publication of Cosmos and History and Images and Symbols
we hear him saying that ' my essential preoccupation is precisely the means
of escaping history, of saving myself through symbol, myth, rites, and arche?
types'.42 The influence of Indian spirituality on Eliade's own Eastern Or?
thodox tradition appears to cause a certain tension in his thought that is not
completely resolved.
Eliade's latest book, A History of Religious Ideas, sheds certain light on this
ambivalent view of history, and provides a partial explanation of his intent.
Cain points out that Eliade 'sees the human spirit responding to crises and
catastrophes with new religio-cultural creations - specific responses to the
environmental condition'.43 This is in fact the book's central message; that
'crises in depth' and creations resulting from them enable religious traditions
to renew themselves. Eliade's stress here is on continuity and innovation :
' continuous reading reveals above all the fundamental unity of all religious
phenomena
5 44
and at the same time the inexorable newness of their expres
sions .
Changes in human history have resulted in new and creative religiou
patterns. But, particular patterns cannot explain the whole. Neither positive
nor negative attitudes towards history can be used to explain the nature
reality in its entirety. To account for the various attitudes necessitates t
examination of the person as a religious being with a central intentional
towards sacred reality. In terms of Eliade's investigations an ambivale
attitude emerges because, from his own framework, this is what the historic
pattern of humankind's intentionality towards the sacred has demonstrated.
42 Dudley, p. 29. From a letter dated June 1954. 43 Cain, p. 16.
44 Mircea Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978) I, p. xiv
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40 JOHN VALK
III. IMPLICATIONS
Eliade's writings have been invaluable in presenting overwhelming e
that the basic role of the religious dimension is constant and unive
spite of the idiosyncrasies of cultures and diversities of religions. He has
advance our understanding of the spiritual as an integral dime
human existence. He struggles heroically to demonstrate that the s
the ground of the natural, that it does not abolish the natural, and tha
not ontologically separate from the natural. This forms the basis
worldview, and is demonstrated in his use of the concept of the coin
oppositorum as a means of explaining the paradoxical coming together
sacred and profane.
It is an evident advance in the discussion to speak of profane in t
an unfulfilled natural existence. Nonetheless, it raises the question
the fulfilling of the natural, and its grounding in the sacred must go
of the invalidation of the natural. Even as Eliade maintains that the sac
necessary to make sense of the natural, the result is an overshadowing
natural.
Though Eliade is emphatically clear that profane reality is not negated
when the sacred is manifested, a clear contrast is always maintained between
the two, with a tendency to regard the natural state as lacking in its entirety.
This view hides within it the supposition that the natural, qua natural, is
anti-sacred, or at best neutral. At this point it is necessary to question the
very nature of Eliade's notion of the paradox and the coincidentia oppositorum
as a way of shedding light on it.
Eliade's use of the paradox implies that the manifestation of the sacred is
never complete. Human history prevents full apprehension of the sacred ; it
will always appear limited and relative. Although he speaks of the future
possibility of a 'new humanism' in which the sacred will be apprehended on
'newer' and 'higher' levels, this new existence will always be faced with the
same paradoxical, and hence limited, revelation of the sacred. The paradox
implies that the sacred is never fully revealed, nor is the profane ever
completely transformed into the sacred : the profane never becomes the sacred.
Eliade's use of the paradox leads him to seek authentic existence in the
transcendent at the expense, though not necessarily the negation, of the
historical, natural mode. One could ask, as an arguable alternative, whether
the sacred mode of being is not that of living out an authentic creaturely
existence, and not one of diminishing this very historical mode of existence.
It is debatable whether Eliade's appropriation of the paradox and coinci?
dentia oppositorum adequately accounts for human creaturely existence.
The profane does not refer to a category of natural or material things, nor
does the sacred merely refer to spiritual things. Rather, the profane refers
more to brokenness of life: evil is the profane tendency. The sacred tendency,
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MIRCEA ELIADE'S THOUGHT 41
on the other hand, is the restored creatureliness ; the redemption we feel in
our lives.
Nonetheless, for studies in the phenomenology of religion, Eliade certainly
has given us evidence of the commonality of the human search for the sacred.
Though we may question his description of the dynamics of the spiritual
mode of human existence, he has clearly pointed to the fact that religion is
an integral dimension of human existence in a reality that bespeaks of the
absolute and the transcendent.
University of New Brunswick,
P.O. Box 4400,
Fredericton, N.B.,
Canada EjB SAj
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