24

Mircea Eliade, 1907-1986

[Mere-Chay-a El-ee-Ah-day]

Above, professor at the

University of Chicago.

At right, age 21, just arrived

in India from Romania.

Eliade: We experience the numinous” (as Rudolph Otto had said).

It is a first-hand experience of the sacred

a special “totally other” [ganz andere] dimension.

It is a self-validating experience.

Because it is “sui generis” – autonomous

not a product of anything else (e.g. psych; soc.)

It cannot be grasped by non-sacred methods

So we must treat it “phenomenologically.”