Mircea Eliade's Cosmos and History position paper

First of all, before I start mentioning the key theories of Mircea Eliade, I would like to briefly discuss the basic definition “ritual” and how this word isn’t truly appropriate for its usage referring to Christianity.

Surely, I believe that many people believe in or probably the Christianity itself is well known as a religion of doctrines and rituals.

I strongly oppose to this view of seeing Christianity as one of the major examples of the idea “cyclical events” proposed by Mircea Eliade’s “Cosmos and History.”

While reading Eliade’s masterpiece, which is extremely valued among historians, I can’t and couldn’t say that I totally disagree with everything that Eliade is saying. This position paper standing on the negative side may portray me as a mindless history student. But I strongly believe that I have a clear point to set tackles upon the theory of Eliade’s cyclical events.

Now, let’s start with the Oxford definition of “ritual.” Ritual is a series of actions that are always carried out in the same way, especially as a part of a religious ceremony.” (2001)

The word ritual did actually refer to some kind of religious ceremonies according to the dictionary. But being a Christian who knows what Christianity is all about, I strongly believe that there should be a clearer distinction between Christianity and other religions. The specific reason for this distinction is because of a Bible verse that came into my mind reading Eliade’s theories.

“’You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.’ And he said to them ‘you have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own tradition.’” (NIV, 1999)

These two scriptures that are directly quoted from the Bible were spoken by Jesus to the Pharisees who have strictly followed all the traditions and rituals of the past. This passage seems to directly contradict the idea of “rituals” referring to Christianity.

But why in the world would Jesus say such harsh and cruel sounding words to the ones that he has created? Because the Pharisees probably thought that obeying commandments and laws, following traditions and rituals, will bring them salvation or a life that leads to heaven.

Jesus himself was the way to heaven and nothing else could replace that way. He has shown new things that world can’t call “cyclical.” No one in the history of mankind has walked on water and has risen from the dead. I believe that Jesus in fact disproves the idea that cyclical event is the only way. According to my understanding of his life, cyclical event is just one of the ways of interpreting history.



Holy Bible, New International Version, (1999)
International Bible society

The Oxford advance learner’s dictionary (6th edition),
(2000) Oxford University