51 pages • 1 hour read
Mircea Eliade, Transl. Willard R. TraskThe Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1956A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Before You Read
Super Short Summary
The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion by Mircea Eliade explores the universal structures of religious experience across cultures, proposing that the core aspect of all religions is the experience of the sacred through hierophanies—manifestations of the divine in daily life. Eliade examines how religious individuals interact with the sacred in space, time, nature, and the life/death cycle, demonstrating how these experiences shape a meaningful existence in contrast to a purely materialistic view.
Reviews & Readership
Review Roundup
Mircea Eliade's The Sacred and the Profane, translated by Willard R. Trask, is highly regarded for its profound insights into the dichotomy of religious experiences and secular life. Praised for its intellectual rigor and evocative concepts, some critics note its dense academic language and occasionally Eurocentric perspectives. Nonetheless, it remains a seminal work in religious studies.
Who Should Read The Sacred and the Profane?
A reader engaged in exploring themes of religious experience and comparative mythology will appreciate The Sacred and the Profane by Mircea Eliade, translated by Willard R. Trask. Comparable to Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces and Rudolf Otto's The Idea of the Holy, this book is ideal for those intrigued by the dichotomy of sacred versus mundane in human culture.