THE IDEA OF THE SACRED IN ÉMILE DURKHEIM, RUDOLF OTTO AND MIRCEA ELIADE

Abstract

In this article the theories on the sacred of Emile Durkheim, Rudolf Otto and Mircea Eliade are briefly accounted for Starting from the idea of the sacred in Durkheim, as a contagious, performative power, enabling the coherence of the community; through the concept of the numinous in Otto, implying a complex relation of incomprehension of the sacred, but afeeling ofawe in the religious man; to the eclectic concept of Eliade, considering the sacred as radically opposed to the profane, and ontologically superior to it, it is analysed as powerful, superior, sublime, impressive, contagious, performative.