This study discloses Shinto’s experiential and existential significance and aims to articulate Shinto’s sacred objective. It shows that Shinto, by way of experience, communicates being in the world with nature and with others as a sacred objective. This suggests that Shinto, in communicating its objective, appeals to the emotions more so than to the intellect; and that Shinto’s sacred objective does not transcend the natural world of both nature and everyday affairs. This study pursues this goal by showing the experiential and existential dimensions of the three primary features of Shinto: it shows how kami (or kami-ness) is thought of as an awe producing quality of being/s that are mostly associated with the natural world; how Shinto shrines’ aesthetics and atmosphere are thought to evoke a feeling of the natural world’s sacredness; and how festivals are thought to be ecstatic and effervescent occasions that regenerate an affirmation of being in the world with others. Though this study does not employ a strict methodological approach—insofar as the conclusions herein are based primarily on literature review—it was motivated by an existential outlook on the study of religion and assumes that the term “religion” refers primarily to an existential phenomenon that pertains not necessarily to socio-historical institutions but to a way of being in the world.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-06-17T14:19:05Z No. of bitstreams: 1 marialuizaviannapessoademendonca.pdf: 4089662 bytes, checksum: c52edde5b2edf7a0dc3516fd910107e8 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-07-13T14:38:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 marialuizaviannapessoademendonca.pdf: 4089662 bytes, checksum: c52edde5b2edf7a0dc3516fd910107e8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-13T14:38:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 marialuizaviannapessoademendonca.pdf: 4089662 bytes, checksum: c52edde5b2edf7a0dc3516fd910107e8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-11 / No presente trabalho apresenta-se um estudo da História das Religiões de Mircea Eliade realizado sobre três aspectos desta obra: os aspectos epistemológico, metodológico e categorial. Na primeira parte do trabalho, postula-se que a História das Religiões eliadiana se trata de uma disciplina autônoma e integral, com objeto próprio de estudo – o fenômeno religioso considerado no seu plano específico de referência, o plano religioso – e com método próprio de trabalho – um método histórico-fenomenológicohermenêutico unitário –; que tal disciplina gira em torno de dois eixos – a fenomenologia da religião stricto sensu e a história das religiões; que, no seu todo, a História das Religiões eliadiana tem o estatuto de uma fenomenologia existencial da religião, situando-se no âmbito da Filosofia. Na segunda parte deste trabalho discorre-se sobre o método apenas implícito na obra eliadiana, o qual leva em conta o aspecto histórico do fenômeno religioso e o qual conjuga fenomenologia e hermenêutica, desenvolvendo-se em dois planos: o primeiro plano é o da análise fenomenológicodescritiva do fenômeno religioso realizada no campo da fenomenologia da religião stricto sensu, no qual o autor romeno conforma sua morfologia do sagrado; o segundo plano é o da análise hermenêutico-filosófica dos fenômenos religiosos históricos, no qual o citado autor procede à interpretação dos fenômenos religiosos historicamente acontecidos para a elaboração de sua história das religiões; Eliade utiliza ainda a análise hermenêutico-filosófica dos simbolismos religiosos para a realização de uma hermenêutica filosófica dos símbolos religiosos por meio da qual formula juízos normativos sobre a condição humana. Na terceira parte deste trabalho, realiza-se um estudo das principais categorias do pensamento eliadiano com ênfase para a hierofania, a dialética da hierofania, a dialética do sagrado e do profano, o sagrado, a religião, a experiência religiosa, o espaço sagrado, tempo e história, o homo religiosus, o homem ocidental moderno a-religioso, o arquétipo, o arquétipo da coincidentia oppositorum, imagens e símbolos, a a-historicidade da vida religiosa, o símbolo religioso, o simbolismo religioso, o mito, o rito, a camuflagem e a ocultação do sagrado no profano, a irreconhecibilidade do sagrado na História (ou a irreconhecibilidade do milagre) e o sagrado no mundo ocidental secularizado. / In this thesis a study of Mircea Eliade’s History of Religions is presented carried through on three different approaches: the epistemological approach, the methodological approach and the categorical approach. In the first Chapter of this thesis, it is claimed that Eliade’s History of Religions constitutes an autonomous and integral discipline, with proper object of study – the religious phenomenon in its specific plan of reference, the religious plan - and with proper method of work – a unitary historical-phenomenological-hermeneutic method -; that such discipline turns around two axles – the phenomenology of religion stricto sensu and the history of religions -; that, in its all, the eliadian History of Religions has the statute of an existential phenomenology of religion placing itself in the branch of Philosophy. In the second Chapter of this thesis, it is discoursed on the only implicit method in the eliadian workmanship, which takes in account the historical aspect of the religious phenomenon and which conjugates phenomenology and hermeneutics, developing itself in two plans: the first plan is that of the phenomenological-descriptive analysis of the religious phenomenon carried through on the field of the phenomenology of religion stricto sensu, in which the Rumanian author conforms his morphology of the Sacred; the second plan is that of the hermeneutic-philosophical analysis of the historical religious phenomena in which the cited author proceeds to the interpretation of the religious phenomena historically happened for the elaboration of his history of religions; Eliade also use the hermeneutic-philosophical analysis of the religious symbolisms for the accomplishment of a philosophical hermeneutics of the religious symbols by means of which he formulates normative judgments on the human being condition. In the third Chapter of this work, a study of the main categories of the eliadian thought is developed with emphasis for the hierophany, the dialectic of the hierophany, the dialectic of the Sacred and the Profane, the Sacred, the religion, the religious experience, the sacred space, time and history, homo religiosus, the modern Occidental man of the secularized societies, the archetype, the archetype of coincidentia oppositorum, images and symbols, the non-historicity of the of religious life, the religious symbol, the religious symbolism, the Myth, the Rite, the Camouflage and the Occultation of the Sacred in the Profane, the unrecognizableness of the Sacred in History (or the unrecognizableness of miracle), and the Sacred in the modern secularized Occidental world.