Sacred Time and Myths

Although I have suggested that Eliade’s understanding of “the sacred,” his idea of hierophany, his analyses of myth and symbol, particularly the coincidentia oppositorum , may be the key characteristics of his thought on religion, it is for his analysis of illud tempus —sacred time—that he is more often singled out. From one of his most widely-read volumes, The Sacred and the Profane , this selection on sacred time is one of the clearest statements of Eliade’s concept. Excerpts from The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion by Mircea Eliade, 68–83 (London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1959). All rights reservd. Copyright © 1957 Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH. English translation copyright © 1959 and renewed 1987 by Harcourt, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Inc.