In his work The Myth of the Eternal Return, Mircea Eliade presents a solution to despair and

terror that is caused by human evil. According to his thesis, humanity has historically dealt with terror
through of the repetition of archetypes within respective civilizations, the regeneration of time, and
through the use of cosmic cycles and destiny. Eliade explains, The chief difference between the man of
the archaic and traditional societies and the man of the modern societies with their strong imprint of
Judaeo-Christianity lies in the fact that the former feels himself indissolubly connected with the Cosmos
and the cosmic rhythms, whereas the latter insists that he is connected only with history (Eliade, xxvii).
In the first section, Eliade explains how objects and acts acquire value. He calls this
hierophany, i.e. becoming sacred. He categorizes facts under the following headings: reality as a
function of the imitation of a celestial archetype, symbolism of the Center, and rituals and significant
profane gestures which acquire the meaning attributed to them (Eliade, 5). He explains nicely how the
ancient civilization built their temples and cities according to heavenly archetypesnot only do his city
or his temple have celestial models; the same is true of the entire region that he inhabits, with the rivers
that water it, the fields that give him food, etc (Eliade, 10). Next, Eliade suggests that through ritual,
Man is contemporary with the cosmogony and with the anthropology because ritual projects him into
the mythical epoch of the beginning (Eliade, 22). To describe that time period he uses that Latin, in illo
tempore. Moreover, he states that a historical event becomes a myth with time and that what man is
worried about it the myth and not the actual facts about ab originethe beginning of time. Through
these myths, ancient civilization were able to explain contemporary events, such as the extinction of
the dragon through the King-Messiah (Eliade, 38). Eliade ends this section by explaining that myth is
the last stage in the development of the hero because popular memory finds difficultly in retaining
individual events and real figures (Eliade, 43).
In the next section, Eliade explores the concept of the regeneration of time. He says,
Regeneration is a new birth (Eliade, 54). Time can be regenerated through cycles found in the weekly,
monthly, and yearly calendar of respective civilizations. Eliade brings many facts of the Babylonian,
Christian, and Hebrew calendars to relate them to agriculture, fertility, purification, and eschatology.
Next, Eliade points out a problem of societies not being able to maintain their position of paradise of
archetypes since their memory is capable of recording history (Eliade, 75). This is the reason why
primitive man needs to free himself from the recollection of sin. Hence, the Hebrews had the Yom
Hakippurim ritual of eliminating the transgressions committed throughout the year and thereby
annulling time (Eliade, 85).
In the last section of the book, Eliade brings up the notion of human suffering and how ancient
civilizations dealt with it. One way of doing such a thing is turning to the sorcerer to do away with the
magical affect, or to the priest to make the gods favorable to him, after a catastrophe. He adds that if
the intervention of priest or sorcerer produced no result, the interested parties recollected the
existence of the Supreme Being (Eliade, 97). Interestingly, this idea is evident in the Hebrew Bible in
that the nation would continue to worship Baal and Ashera to ensure the fertility of their crops in an
arid land, however when a neighboring nation would attack or a famine would strike, those very same
people sought YHWH through the contemporary prophet. Eliade also explains that once the cause of the
suffering is revealed, it becomes bearable. Moreover, he explains that the Paleo-Oriental myth of
suffering, death, and resurrection became an archetype, thereby justifying the sufferings of the just
(Eliade, 101). Subsequently, Eliade introduces the concept of theophany, i.e. attributing historical
calamity to the Supreme Being. He explains how the Hebrews explained calamities as the result of
transgression. He says, For the first time, the prophets placed a value on history, succeeded in
transcending the traditional vision in the cycle, and discovered a one-way time (Eliade, 104). As a
result, the Hebrews turned history into epiphanies of God. Thus, the Jewish tradition coined the terms
messianic era and World to come. On the other hand, the Hindus explained suffering as cause and
effect, hence karma. Finally, the Sundkar-nask divides history into four ages: gold, silver, steel, and
mixed with iron (Eliade, 125). It is noteworthy to find this parallel in Nebuchadnears dream of the
statue of these four elements. According to the text, Daniel is revealed the course of history through the
respective empires: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Just as the Hindus, the Hebrews limited
the duration of the world to seven millennia, but the rabbinate never encouraged mathematical
calculations to determine the end of the world (Eliade, 127). On the contrary, pre-Messianic Jewish
tradition taught that the illud tempus would certainly arrive one day (Eliade, 129), thereby staying
within the ancient tradition of regenerating time.
Whereas Freud juxtaposes religion with sexual freedom, Eliade juxtaposes archaic civilization
with modern man. Eliade proposes that faith is the greatest tool to humanity. Rudolf Otto would
agree that in order to have faith, one must be predisposed to having experienced the numinous. For
W.C. Smith, exercising faith would transcend the cumulative tradition, vulgarly called religion.
Thus, for Eliade humans can become participants in the ontological constitution of the universe through
faith. This idea is echoed in the Talmud when Rabbi Hamnuna says He who prays on the eve of the
Sabbath and recites and *the heaven and the earth+ were finished, the Writ treats of him as though he had
become a partner with the Holy One, blessed be He, in the Creation" (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbath 119b).
Upon reciting the qiddush Friday evening, the Jew remembers that act of Creation and the redemption from
Egyptian bondage. The central theme here is that a slave does not have control over time and by
remembering and keeping the Sabbath, the Jew imitates God, who is outside of time and space. Modern
man becomes a victim of the terror of history through his historical philosophies. Neither Marx nor
Nietzsche were able to answer the existential question, Why do humans suffer? This idea is seen in the
2014 film, Lucy, where freedom from time is portrayed as being godlike, and being in time, is primitive
and equated with ignorance. In the same vein, the protagonist of the film Transcendence (2014) becomes
divine when his cerebral neurological impulses (thought processes) are codified through computer software
and uploaded to the cloud. If one were to view the Universal Spirit from Its perspective, all of Creation and
history is but one moment of vibration within a confined space (Einsteins Theory of Relativity). In fact, the
name of the Supreme Being, YHWH, revealed to Moses in the burning bush, testifies of Infinity (He who was,
is, and will be). Also, Rabbi Eliezer said, Repent one day before your death (Mishnah Abot 2:15). Finally, the
traditional Jew in modern society would agree with Eliades thesis that true emancipation is to be free from
time and recorded history through active participation with divinity on a daily basis.