A History of Religious Ideas, Volume 2 Quotes

“From the point of view of the history of religions, the Incarnation represents the last and most perfect hierophany ... To accept the possibility of the Absolute becoming incarnate in a historical person ... is to recognize that the countless pre-Christian generations were not victims of an illusion when they proclaimed the presence of the sacred, i.e., of the divine, in the objects and rhythms of the cosmos.”
― Mircea Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas, Volume 2: From Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity

“To remain “awake,” to be fully conscious, means: to be present to the world of the spirit.”
― Mircea Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas, Volume 2: From Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity

“The myths that projected Jesus of Nazareth into a universe of archetypes and transcendent figures are as “true” as his acts and words; indeed, these myths confirm the strength and creativity of his original message.”
― Mircea Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas, Volume 2: From Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity

“Every eschatology returns to, continues and revalorizes the idea that the Creation, supremely the divine work, is alone capable of renewing and sanctifying human existence.”
― Mircea Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas, Volume 2: From Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity

“Alchemy was not an embryonic chemistry; it was a discipline bound up with a different system of significances and pursuing a different end.”
― Mircea Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas, Volume 2: From Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity