Paul Meredith- Reading Blog 1

The Sacred and the Profane: the Nature of Religion by Mircea Eliade’s was a interesting piece to read. I derived from it that the Sacred is that which is otherworldly, and that our ‘natural’ world is profane. Eliade writes, “It is easy to understand that a religious man deeply desires to be, to participate in reality, to be saturated with power.” I was not quite sure what Eliade was trying to say with this quote. Was he trying to say that man wants to be with the sacred, which is power, or that man wants to be with the sacred because it entails power?

I liked the use of basic examples of experience and point of view regarding things such as a sacred stone or tree. A sacred stone from the profane point of view is just a stone, and from the sacred point of view it is, well, sacred. I believe this also plays in to how one experiences the sacred and the profane; profane is familiar, whereas sacred pushes a person to see beyond the surface. It also reminds me of how people deal with people. There is a layer where we get to know others and we find that there is more beneath the physical view. If we could glimpse or attempt to perceive and be aware of what is sacred we would be able to better identify the sacred.