Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57539 in Books
• Published on: 1959-12-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

THE comparitive- religions primer
This eminently readable introduction to cross-cultural religious studies is one of the gems of my personal library. Eliade does not believe that "primitive" means "simple-minded" or "outmoded", hence, his discussions of "primitive" religious ideas are sympathetic and penetrating. The final section of the book skewers "modern" humanity's pretensions to having transcended the sacred. The appendix contains a succinct and iluminating chronology of the development of "history of religions" studies. If you always thought (along with most of the rest of the world) that "myth" simply meant "old superstition" or "false story"' this book has a few surprises in store for you. Just read it!

The Sacred and Profane
Years ago, I was assigned this book in one of my university classes. I number it in my most memorable and personally influential works that I have ever read. At the time, I had just begun to study archaeology and had very little understanding of the concept of ethnocentricism. My personal way of thinking was very black and white. The only real experience that I had with the dichotomies of the sacred versus the profane at that point was my own experiences.

The Sacred and the Profane gave me an entirely different perspective. I began seeing how others saw religion, spirituality, ritual, and symbolism in slightly different ways. How certain experiences could be interpreted in a variety of ways to become personal and cultural beliefs. I also noticed how these beliefs permeated into everyday life. So began my interests in spirituality, symbolic dichotomies, and the varied beliefs of others.

I have just ripped it in half and thrown it in the bin.
I must refrain from using "profane" language to describe this book and will try and summarize my reasons for ripping the book in half and throwing it into my bin.

-The first 40 pages could be condensed to a single paragraph.
Eliade unnecessarily complicates his introduction by regurgitating a seemingly endless list of permutations of what the book is about and what it is not about. He is overly dichotomous in describing "the religious man" and the "non religious man" saying there is a gaping abyss dividing the two which is ridiculous!!! In my opinion there IS the black and there is the white but there are also endless shades of gray. But he rambles on and on with overly complex language about the homologous hierophany of "real and real-ly space" and his illogical tautology is very irritating to me as I believe in getting to the point. He basks in his own self-implied superior knowledge and comes across as arrogant. he repeatedly uses the phrase "in short, history"

basically I'm not going to waste anymore time getting frustrated over this. It was satisfying to rip it in half as i believe it is a contrived endless ball of string with many knots and if I did bother to untangle it all I'd have is an endless length of string. I am interested in the subject area of this book and have ordered a copy of "the discoverers" by Daniel J. Boorstin, who in my opinion is much more qualified and capable of tackling this vast and consuming subject than Eliade and more to the point Boorstin is not a native of France.