Chung Chin Hong
"Mircea Eliade's Creative Hermeneutics and
the Dialectic of the Sacred and the Profane"
Abstract Curriculum Vitae
Abstract
This paper poses two questions on Eliade:
First, how does he define the object of religious studies? Many have criticized his concept of the sacred or of hierophany as so ambiguous that he regards religion not only as an objective reality but also as a phenomenon of subjective consciousness. But if one scrutinizes Eliade's dialectic of the sacred and the profane, the criticism is proven to be wrong. This is due to two facts: that he presupposes human as homo religiosus; and that this is experienced in the world of human life. Thus, the question should not be 'what is religion?' but 'what is called religion?' The concern should be turned from metaphysics to experience itself. What is important, therefore, is not what he says about the conscious system of religious studies but how he changes the scheme of the question itself. What can be thought the object of Eliade is a world-constructing object, the object of a creative subjectivity.
If the first question is on Eliade's epistemology, the second is on his hermeneutics. As the sacred was interchangeable with hierophany in his epistemology, hierophany is now interchangeable with symbol in his hermeneutics. This shows Eliade's hermeneutics is deeply based on traditional phenomenology. The process of his hermeneutic discouse is not greatly different from the structure of phenomenological hermeneutics. In addition, his attitude is strongly criticized as being anti-historical. But such a criticism is due to the misconception of structure and phenomenon, sacred and profane. And this misconception is the result of ignoring the fact that what Elade calls free variation is not imaginative variation but actual variation, and the fact that encoding of symbolic meaning or assessment of symbol is done on the basis of existence. What should be understood is the creativity of Eliade's hermeneutics.
In this respect, Eliade's hermeneutics is more than phenomenological hermeneutics. It can be mapped as follows: He unfolds a new phenomenology different from traditional phenomenology by overlapping epistemology and praxiology through phenomenology and hermeneutics based on history and structure, hierophany and symbol, model and paradigm. It may be called the surplus of phenomenology. The very surplus is Eliade's contribution to religious studies and is still appropriate for students of religion.
Curriculum Vitae
Born November 23, 1937
Current Position
Professor, Department of Religious Studies, College of Humanities, Seoul National University(since 1981) A member of the National Academy of Science of Republic of Korea(since 1999)
Education
D. Min. San Francisco Theological Seminary 1980
S.T.M. United Theological Seminary, Dayton Ohio, 1971
M.A. in Religious Studies. Seoul National University 1965
B.A. in Religious Studies. Seoul National University 1960
Publication(major works)
Logic of Religious Culture. SNU Press(forthcoming, September 2000)
Heaven, Purity, and Imagination. Seoul, Kang, 1997
Cognition and Interpretation of Religious Culture. SNU Press, 1996
Understanding Religious Culture. Seoul, Chongnyonsa, 1995
Unfolding of Korean Religious Culture. Seoul, Jipmundang, 1986
Introduction to the Study of Religion. Seoul, Chonmangsa, 1980
Translation(major work)
Cosmos and History by Mircea Eliade. Seoul, Modern Thought Publishing Co., 1974
Articles(recent ones)
'Rethinking of Ritual' Journal of Religious Studies. Pp. 1-15, Vol. 18, Department of Religious Studies, Seoul National University, 1999
'Arts and the Dream-Time' Religion and Culture. Pp. 172-192, Vol. 5, Institute of Religion and Culture, Seoul National University, 1999
'Soteriological Implications of Literature: On Eliade's Mantuleasa Street (The Old Man and the Bureaucrats)' The Journal of the Korean Society of Literature and Religion. Pp. 67-96, The Korean Society of Literature and Religion, 1999
Literary works(major ones)
Sometimes There Blossom Silver Flowers in the Garden (a collection of poems). Seoul, Kang, 1997
Searching for God, Searching for Human Being(a traveler's journal). Seoul, Jipmundang, 1994
"Mircea Eliade's Creative Hermeneutics and
the Dialectic of the Sacred and the Profane"
Abstract Curriculum Vitae
Abstract
This paper poses two questions on Eliade:
First, how does he define the object of religious studies? Many have criticized his concept of the sacred or of hierophany as so ambiguous that he regards religion not only as an objective reality but also as a phenomenon of subjective consciousness. But if one scrutinizes Eliade's dialectic of the sacred and the profane, the criticism is proven to be wrong. This is due to two facts: that he presupposes human as homo religiosus; and that this is experienced in the world of human life. Thus, the question should not be 'what is religion?' but 'what is called religion?' The concern should be turned from metaphysics to experience itself. What is important, therefore, is not what he says about the conscious system of religious studies but how he changes the scheme of the question itself. What can be thought the object of Eliade is a world-constructing object, the object of a creative subjectivity.
If the first question is on Eliade's epistemology, the second is on his hermeneutics. As the sacred was interchangeable with hierophany in his epistemology, hierophany is now interchangeable with symbol in his hermeneutics. This shows Eliade's hermeneutics is deeply based on traditional phenomenology. The process of his hermeneutic discouse is not greatly different from the structure of phenomenological hermeneutics. In addition, his attitude is strongly criticized as being anti-historical. But such a criticism is due to the misconception of structure and phenomenon, sacred and profane. And this misconception is the result of ignoring the fact that what Elade calls free variation is not imaginative variation but actual variation, and the fact that encoding of symbolic meaning or assessment of symbol is done on the basis of existence. What should be understood is the creativity of Eliade's hermeneutics.
In this respect, Eliade's hermeneutics is more than phenomenological hermeneutics. It can be mapped as follows: He unfolds a new phenomenology different from traditional phenomenology by overlapping epistemology and praxiology through phenomenology and hermeneutics based on history and structure, hierophany and symbol, model and paradigm. It may be called the surplus of phenomenology. The very surplus is Eliade's contribution to religious studies and is still appropriate for students of religion.
Curriculum Vitae
Born November 23, 1937
Current Position
Professor, Department of Religious Studies, College of Humanities, Seoul National University(since 1981) A member of the National Academy of Science of Republic of Korea(since 1999)
Education
D. Min. San Francisco Theological Seminary 1980
S.T.M. United Theological Seminary, Dayton Ohio, 1971
M.A. in Religious Studies. Seoul National University 1965
B.A. in Religious Studies. Seoul National University 1960
Publication(major works)
Logic of Religious Culture. SNU Press(forthcoming, September 2000)
Heaven, Purity, and Imagination. Seoul, Kang, 1997
Cognition and Interpretation of Religious Culture. SNU Press, 1996
Understanding Religious Culture. Seoul, Chongnyonsa, 1995
Unfolding of Korean Religious Culture. Seoul, Jipmundang, 1986
Introduction to the Study of Religion. Seoul, Chonmangsa, 1980
Translation(major work)
Cosmos and History by Mircea Eliade. Seoul, Modern Thought Publishing Co., 1974
Articles(recent ones)
'Rethinking of Ritual' Journal of Religious Studies. Pp. 1-15, Vol. 18, Department of Religious Studies, Seoul National University, 1999
'Arts and the Dream-Time' Religion and Culture. Pp. 172-192, Vol. 5, Institute of Religion and Culture, Seoul National University, 1999
'Soteriological Implications of Literature: On Eliade's Mantuleasa Street (The Old Man and the Bureaucrats)' The Journal of the Korean Society of Literature and Religion. Pp. 67-96, The Korean Society of Literature and Religion, 1999
Literary works(major ones)
Sometimes There Blossom Silver Flowers in the Garden (a collection of poems). Seoul, Kang, 1997
Searching for God, Searching for Human Being(a traveler's journal). Seoul, Jipmundang, 1994