The Sacred in the Secular World

The apprehension of certain profane phenomena as authentically revelatory of a powerful reality that is simultaneously concealed and revealed within them is characteristic of Eliade’s understanding of religion. It is further characteristic of his understanding that this key element, the sacred, is not entirely lost to the secular world, but is more profoundly concealed and more subtly revealed. Also characteristic is Eliade’s usage of the term “modern man” to mean specifically non-religious people. It is in this article that Eliade gives his most fully ramified explanation of his insistence—repeated in The Quest (p. i), in the second volume of his Journal {No Souvenirs) (p. 1), and in his History of Religious Ideas (vol. I, xiii)—that “the sacred is an element in the structure of human consciousness.” It is in this article that one also finds a close link between phenomenology, religion, meaning, and exemplary patterns or models. My own analysis of this can be found in the Introduction and chapter 16 of my Reconstructing Eliade. “The Sacred in the Secular World” was an editorial summation of lectures and discussions given at the Conference on the Philosophy of Religion at Boston College, Summer, 1968. Edited by Christopher J. Arthur and originally published in Cultural Hermeneutics 1 (1973): 101–13. All rights reserved. Copyright© 1973 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland. Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Ltd.