Our Belief: It's what we've all been waiting for
Modern sociologists have suggested that throughout the history of humanity, the divine has revealed itself, from the simplest and most elementary forms, to the "supreme hierophany"- the claim that God is revealed by His incarnation in Jesus Christ."Human myths do not just reflect the cycles of life and death in nature; they reenact as well the great personal struggle that takes place in the life of each human individual: the drama of birth, life, and death as well as the hope of rebirth or redemption. No symbol manages to being divine life so near to human life as the figure of the savior-god, the divinity who even shared mankind's sufferings, died and rose from the dead to redeem them. Precisely because of this marked humanity, this type of god plays a crucial role in the history of religion."
Daniel L. Pals, 'Eight Theories of Religion'
“Christianity involves the most historically involved incarnation of the sacred.
One might even say that all hierophanies (manifestations of the divine) throughout history are simply prefigurations of the miracle of the Incarnation, that every hierophany is an abortive attempt to reveal the mystery of the coming together of God and man.
It does not therefore seem absurd in the least to study the nature of primitive hierophanies in the light of Christian theology. The whole religious life of mankind- expressed in the dialectic of various hierophanies- would from this standpoint, be simply a waiting for Christ.”
Mircea Eliade (1907-1986, the father of modern religious studies)
The University of Chicago
From 'Patterns in Comparative Religion'
posted by MM at 3:42 PM
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