Polarity and the Coincidentia Oppositorum

This second description of Eliade’s understanding of the coincidentia oppositorum from The Quest: History and Meaning in Religion comes twenty years after the preceding selection. This not only fleshes out his understanding of the coincidentia , it also introduces another of Eliade’s characteristic themes—his position on the irreducible nature of the religious phenomenon—as he says, “the irreducibility of the spiritual creation to a preexistent system of values.” From The Quest by Mircea Eliade, 168-73 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969 ). All rights reserved. Copyright © 1969 by the University of Chicago Press. Reprinted by permission of the University of Chicago Press.