A Religious Man in a Profane World It is easy to believe that man can exist solely in this world yet it is harder

to believe that there is something greater than man which governs this universe. The nature of religion in a human being is the pivotal point that distinguishes these two ideas. Mircea Eliade, in his book titled The Sacred and the Profane describes a homo religiosus. This is a man who has a sense of a religious conscience of the world around him. To a homo religiosus, the world and everything in it takes on a sacred meaning. There is nothing ordinary or anything homogenous about the universe. Time and space have interloping connections to something completely beyond man and connect the religious man to the transcended world of the gods. Homo religiosus always believes that there is an absolute reality, the sacred, which transcends this world but manifests itself in the world, thereby sanctifying it and making it real (Eliade, 202). The search for meaning in life, as Eliade points out becomes the prevalent theme in the life of a religious man. A religious man must feel the reality of his life. In order for this to occur, the things in his life which define him such as the job, the house, the family must all be unified and connected to some type of unifying center. Eliade terms this idea the axis mundi: one pillar around which a religious mans life is built from. Once everything is tied together to one unifying idea such as the gods, then life becomes meaningful and everything is interconnected in ones life. There is nothing that is senseless and life itself gains a purpose. The purpose of living on Earth and to bring the sanctity of the heavens and the gods to Earth becomes the goal of the religious man. The life of a religious man becomes meaningful in that everything revolves around a sacred center, and man tries to replicate the divine space in his own profane space through his religion. Religion gives him a sense of security and safety on earth. The world around him is filled with chaos and fear and he finds stability in the sacred space he has adopted within his religion. On the other hand, a secular man does not feel connected to the world. His life will be filled with his job, his family and his home but with a lack of unification. There will be no common goal in his life but a continuous search for some kind of meaning. A profane man will feel lost in life because he

will have no sense of direction, whereas a religious man takes direction from, for example the Bible or the Quran. There will be no unification and no grounding source for this man to root his life to the ground. A religious mans unification exists in his personal space; a space which he created to replicate the space of the divine to serve the purpose of the sacred space. A sacred space is the essence of religion in the profane world. The religious man creates a sacred space to come to, to be renewed spiritually. The Christian church is the most sacred space in Christianity and it is where the holy is believed to descend. People come and gather to witness this and become renewed in the faith. The sacred buildings hold a special power that no other building can hold. They are places where the greatness and powerfully divine spirits can be sought out. It is a place that holds a special meaning to the religious person and that meaning is again tied to the axis mundi. Not necessarily a sacred building, but a sacred space can become a private room in a house for example. It will serve the person the same spiritual renewal that a church can serve its congregation. It can be a place where the person goes to unwind and meditate. Spirituality is often found in this type of sacred space as well because it is a designated place where a human being can meet the transcendence of the divine. A non-religious person cannot understand a sacred space. A profane space is understood to be homogenous in nature. Everything that surrounds the profane man is the same throughout and has no special significance. A sacred space does not exist because the profane man does not seek for the divine transcendence in his life; therefore there is no need for such a space. Whereas the religious man seeks to build his world closer to the gods, a profane man seeks to build his world around himself. The difference comes down to the fact that the non-religious man becomes vain in his own existence, living for nothing more than himself. A religious man chooses to abstain from his own vanity and places a higher being as the

authority in his life. Only through sacred space of a religious man, can he find the fulfillment he needs to find the meaning to life. This religious need expresses an unquenchable ontological thirst. Religious man thirsts for being. (64) The thirst for being as Eliade emphasizes, becomes the essential desire of a religious man to pursue and mimic the sacred realm. It allows him to understand the world around him

and understand especially- how he fits into it. Within a sacred space rests a concept of sacred time: time which recreates the creation of the universe. Time regenerates all things for the purpose of remembrance of the start of the world and also for the spiritual cleansing of the religious man. For the religious man to find meaning he must understand that the center of reality is the remembrance of when it all began. The sacred time in a religious mans life occurs perhaps a few times a year, but importantly every year on the eve. This is when the old year ends and the new year begins. This represents the idea of coming back to the beginning which reminds us of the creation of the universe. Religious holidays as well, all commemorate the beginnings and the events which have led to the present. For a religious person, these times hold special significance and become sacred. Throughout the year, these religious holidays and ceremonies bring meaning to the religious man. He has something to look forward to and it all ties into his life, bringing meaning once again. A non-religious person finds no significance in the holidays and ceremonies that arise so his year becomes an unorganized schedule with nothing to look forward to and no meaningful moments to live for. The ceremonies marking the beginning of a new year in many cultures are accompanied by great festivities which symbolize a renewal of life. It symbolizes a somewhat return to the beginning of a new year, and the return of the creation of the world. A profane person cannot find this significance in this event and therefore he cannot consciously relive this renewal of life. The idea of significance is a great difference between a religious man and the profane man. To a religious man, everything in life carries certain significance. Events are marked by ceremonies to exemplify their special importance. Time has its significant value by marking the beginning and the end of months and years. Even space becomes significant when a religious man needs a spiritual renewal. In life, the nature that surrounds us is especially significant. The religious man sees nature as a logical surrounding whereas a non religious man observes nature to be a random creation. Everyday life becomes truly noteworthy to a religious man when he observes the nature around him. He knows what to look for and he notices when nature sends its signs. To a profane man, nature simply becomes a backdrop of ordinary life and plays no significant role in a mans life. Life becomes symbolic for a

religious man and when everyday things seem to be slightly different, a religious man will be able to interpret these changes into signs. Eliade speaks about the divine realm being able to transcend itself into the profane world. Since this world is transparent, only a religious man has the ability to see through it and see the signs from the divine. This is easy to understand, for the cosmos is a divine creation; coming from the hands of the gods, the world is impregnated with sacredness (116). However, a profane man can only state that any kind of change from the norm can be only a coincidence, because he is not able to see the transparency of the divine. Within this world, a religious man seems to be connected with the universe by an invisible thread. This thread ties him into the divine as well as into the profane. He can understand the significance of the nature which surrounds him because through nature, the divine spirits communicate with him. He becomes interconnected with the realm of the divine, but not all the time. Time has a scared meaning as well for it recreates the creation of the world and it brings the man back to the beginning, concluding the cycle of life. Through the sacred time, the religious man creates a sacred space in which he can thrive in and mimic the divine realm on earth. This scared space has the ability to bring the human being closer to the gods. All this creates a special sense of existence for the religious man. He now lives the reality of his existence.

Works Cited Eliade, Mircea. The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion. Orlando: Harcourt Inc., 1957.