The Dialectic of the Sacred

The sacred is apprehended as being revealed by elements of the profane or phenomenal world while it is simultaneously concealed by the very profane nature of phenomena. This necessitates some kind of dialectical relation between the two. Eliade spoke of the dialectic in the selection from Patterns on “the Structure and Morphology of the Sacred” and so did Eliade and Sullivan in “Hierophany,” this volume, 86–93 Douglas Allen here attempts to give the whole concept more clarity. This explanation comes from Allen’s book, Structure and Creativity in Religion: Hermeneutics in Mircea Eliade’s Phenomenology and New Directions , 123–30 (The Hague: Mouton, 1978). All rights reserved. Copyright © 1978 by Mouton de Gruyter. Reprinted by permission of Mouton de Gruyter and the author.