The definition of profane is something that is obscene or contrary to religious teachings. To violate, as anything sacred; to treat with abuse, irreverence, obloquy, or contempt; to desecrate; to pollute; as, to profane the name of God; to profane the Scriptures, or the ordinance of God.

In his work on the history of religion, Eliade is most highly regarded for his writings on Alchemy, Shamanism, Yoga and what he called the eternal return—the implicit belief, supposedly present in religious thought in general, that religious behavior is not only an imitation of, but also a participation in, sacred …

characterized by irreverence or contempt for God or sacred principles or things; irreligious. not devoted to holy or religious purposes; unconsecrated; secular (opposed to sacred). unholy; heathen; pagan: profane rites.

Eliade explicitly states that the “sacred” does not “imply belief in God or gods or spirits . . . it is the experience of a reality and the source of an awareness of existing in the world” (Ordeal by Labyrinth 154).

Profane actions treat the sacred with abuse, irreverence or contempt.

Which are ways in which modern sociologists approach the study of religion? Exploring the norms and values of a group by explaining their beliefs. Exploring the truth of a religion’s claims. Exploring the social functions of the religion.

What does Livingston speculate was responsible for the rise of goddess worship in human history? According to Gnosticism, a lesser evil God created the world. In Taoism, yin and yang are mutually conflicting. In henotheism, the sky God or creator divinity is often too remote to be of any practical help.

The sacred’ is, for Eliade, quite clearly a. ‘valorization,’ a projection, a valuation of human beings by virtue. of which they become religious and their world becomes a. hierophany. somewhere, at a given time, each human society chose for itself a certain.

One of his most instrumental contributions to religious studies was his theory of eternal return, which holds that myths and rituals do not simply commemorate hierophanies, but, at least to the minds of the religious, actually participate in them. His literary works belong to the fantastic and autobiographical genres.

His theory that hierophanies form the basis of religion, splitting the human experience of reality into sacred and profane space and time, has proved influential.

Eliade called this concept the “eternal return” (distinguished from the philosophical concept of “eternal return”). Wendy Doniger noted that Eliade’s theory of the eternal return “has become a truism in the study of religions”.

A recurrent theme in Eliade’s myth analysis is the axis mundi, the Center of the World. According to Eliade, the Cosmic Center is a necessary corollary to the division of reality into the Sacred and the profane. The Sacred contains all value, and the world gains purpose and meaning only through hierophanies: In…