Hierophany

five elements of every sacred space. For a place to be sacred, there has to be a hierophany, cosmogonic qualities, a threshold, and where heavenly and earthly come to meet and has to have a break in the homogeneity of the space. To examine further, we explored Stonehill’s Chapel of Mary to see if it qualifies as a Sacred space through the words of Eliade. Based on the criteria presented by M. Eliade in The Sacred and the Profane, the Chapel of Mary at Stonehill College is a Sacred Space. The first characteristic of a sacred space would be somewhere where…

weave together several significant and influential hierophanies using powerful language to describe imageries of mountains, temples, and sacrifices…

These divine happenings have been coined as hierophanies by Eliade in his The Sacred and the Profane. The establishment of these said hierophanies are key in create an effect that works to relate the physical facets of the city with its mythical foundations. These spiritual encounters, are understood mythologically as attempts for God or a deity to connect to man on earth to provide “an absolute fixed point, a center” for spirituality (Eliade 1987: 20). Hierophanies, are thus understood to…

In chapter one of his book “The Sacred & Profane: The Nature of Religion,” author Mircea Eliade introduces the conceptual and religious importance of sacred space on an individual and worldly level. He begins by discussing the differences between religious man and nonreligious man and how those variations relate to the ideas within sacred space and profane space. Eliade defines a nonreligious man as one “who rejects the sacrality of the world, who accepts a profane existence, divested of all…

Psalm 48 adds on to the ideas I presented in when talking about 1 Samuel 24. Psalm 48 describes God’s presence in the city of Jerusalem and his protection of the city. This Psalm shows that God himself is present in the city of Jerusalem. This is not just a Hierophany but a Theophony as it explicitly mentions that god is in the city and is protecting the city. This Theophony contributes to Eliade’s idea on how a place becomes sacred. Because a theophony and numerous hierophanies occurred in…

I’d like to start off with Eliade. With his theories on the human interaction with the sacred, Eliade’s view on religion can be applied to a range of different cultures. For example, Eliade emphasized the term “hierophany”, used to describe a moment in time when the sacred reveals itself to humans. The original location of a hierophany is referred to as a “cosmic center”, and humans recreate them through an “imago mundi”, or a mirror reflection of the original cosmic center. Examples of these…

The experience of a hierophany is a sensory one. The Lord manifests himself to David as well as the prophet Nathan multiple times by speaking directly to them. God’s presence can also be felt by the Israelites, the house of Odeb-edom and King David through the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was a moving tabernacle to house the Lord while the Israelites searched for the Promised Land in the desert for more than 70 years. While it is debated whether the Ark was meant to be a footstool or throne for…

Nia Byaombe S.A.C.R.E.D: Story About Creating Ray’s End of Devastation The third chapter of the The Sacred Quest by Lawrence Cunningham and John Kelsey indicates the significance of the sacred hierophanies, specifically focusing on sacred media. These types of vehicles include “sacred persons, objects, time, and space.” (Cunningham & Kelsey, The Sacred Quest, p. 39). The film Field of Dreams accurately demonstrates the numerous hierophanies mentioned in the book. The main character, Ray…

Pastor Dr. Allen Roberts opened the service by praying to Jesus as well as asking The Lord’s blessing upon the Church in addition to asking The Lord to speak through him during the sermon. The Baptist church is part of the Protestant religion and believes in the holy trinity. Sunday’s from nine o’clock in the morning, if you attend Sunday school, to a little after one-thirty in the afternoon after the worship service and sermon is sacred time for many traditional Baptist churches. There is also…

The vision pit is an example of sacred time and space, which is only sacred when it is being used. This temporary transformation from the profane to the sacred is called hierophany (Livingston 43). Another example of hierophany is the Sun Dance, as the event took place at an old fairground and only became sacred for the time of the Sun Dance. One of the few examples of sacred time that is permanent is after the Native Americans kill a buffalo, as they pray in thanks for all that it provides…