I Don't Want To Be Mediocre, This

The History Of Religions Reaches Down And Makes Contact With That Which Is Essentially Human: The Relation Of Man To The Sacred. The History Of Religions Can Play An Extremely Important Role In The Crisis We Are Living Through. The Crises Of Modern Man Are To A Large Extent Religious Ones, Insofar As They Are An Awakening Of His Awareness To An Absence Of Meaning.

The Sacred Tree, The Sacred Stone Are Not Adored As Stone Or Tree; They Are Worshipped Precisely Because They Are Hierophanies, Because They Show Something That Is No Longer Stone Or Tree But Sacred, The Ganz Andere Or 'wholly Other.'

When The Sacred Manifests Itself In Any Hierophany, There Is Not Only A Break In The Homogeneity Of Space; There Is Also A Revelation Of An Absolute Reality, Opposed To The Nonreality Of The Vast Surrounding Expanse. The Manifestation Of The Sacred Ontologically Founds The World. In The Homogenous And Infinite Expanse, In Which No Point Of Reference Is Possible And Hence No Orientation Can Be Established, The Hierophany Reveals An Absolute Fixed Point, A Center.

The Crude Product Of Nature, The Object Fashioned By The Industry Of Man, Acquire Their Reality, Their Identity, Only To The Extent Of Their Participation In A Transcendent Reality.

It Would Be Frightening To Think That In All The Cosmos, Which Is So Harmonious, So Complete And Equal To Itself, That Only Human Life Is Happening Randomly, That Only One's Destiny Lacks Meaning.