Without Lifting A Finger

The term " hierophany " (from the Greek roots "ἱερός" (hieros), meaning "sacred" or "holy," and "φαίνειν" (phainein) meaning "to reveal" or "to bring to light") signifies a manifestation of the sacred . In  Mircea Eliade's writings: The term "hierophany" appears frequently in the works of the religious historian Mircea Eliade as an alternative to the more restrictive term " theophany " (an appearance of a god). [1] Eliade argues that religion is based on a sharp distinction between the sacred (God, gods, mythical ancestors, etc.) and the profane. [2] According to Eliade, for traditional man, myths describe "breakthroughs of the sacred (or the 'supernatural') into the World" – that is, hierophanies. [3] In the hierophanies recorded in myth, the sacred appears in the form of ideal models (the actions and commandments of gods, heroes, etc.). By manifesting itself as ...

The Iron Guard ( Romanian : Garda de fier pronounced  [ˈɡarda de ˈfjer]  ( listen ) ) is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II . The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist , anti-communist , anti-capitalist and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith. It is also considered an antisemitic organization. When Ion Antonescu came to power in September 1940 he brought the Iron Guard into the government. Under the dictatorial rule of Horia Sima , the Guard launched a murderous attack on Jews. In January 1941, however, Antonescu used the army to suppress a revolt of the Iron Guard . He destroyed the organization, as its commander Horia Sima and some other leaders escaped to Germany. Background Romanian antisemitism had deep roots and was generally accepted, as it was a religious conception in which Christians and Jews were very different and should live independent to eac...

Excerpts: I first met Eliade around 1932, in Bucharest, where I had just finished some sort of studies in philosophy. He was at that time the idol of the "new generation," a magic formula we were proud to invoke. *  I have never been able to read Balzac; to tell the truth, I stopped trying on threshold of adolescence. His world is closed to me, inaccessible; I never manage to enter it; I am refractory to it. How many times has Eliade tried to convert me! He first read the Comedie humaine in Bucharest; he reread it in Paris in 1947; perhaps he is rereading it in Chicago now. * Since Pascal and Kierkegaard, we can no longer conceive of "salvation" without a procession of infirmities, and without the secret pleasures of the interior drama. * We are all, Eliade first of all, ci-devant believers; we are all religious spirits without religion. 

Mircea Eliade ( Romanian:  [eliˈade] ; March 9 [ O.S. February 24] 1907 – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago . He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day. 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. [1] One of his most influential 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. [1] His literary works belong to the fantastic and autobiographical genres. The best known are the novels Maitreyi ("La Nuit Bengali " or "Bengal Nights"), Noaptea de Sânziene ("The Forbidden Forest"), Isabel și a...