Comparative
Religions: Phenomenological Approach
In this approach, the focus is on the experience of the believer. What is
their response to a religious experience? What behaviors, responses, speeches
are associated with religious events?
Mircea Eliade distinguishes between the sacred (the numinous)
and the profane.
- Sacred:
the numinous, the other.
The sacred disrupts the everyday. It is tied to a unifying time on which
the everyday is founded. The sacred may be encountered or provoked in
religious events (Eliade focuses on storytelling, the retelling of myths).
- Profane:
The everyday, the common. The everyday world is homogenous, unbroken,
until it is disrupted by the sacred.
Chaucer's
Pilgrims
The pilgrimage is an event that provokes the sacred; it brings
the sacred into the profane world. It has the potential to serve as a
hierophany (a manifestation of the sacred). Notice the
focus on the profane; the pilgrims are telling stories to win a bet.
Other
Sources
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