English

Adjective

hierophanic ‎(comparative more hierophanic, superlative most hierophanic)

1. (religion) Of or pertaining to (a particular) hierophany; hierophanical.
   • 1979, S[abino] S. Acquaviva; Patricia Lipscomb, transl., The Decline of the Sacred in Industrial Society, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, ISBN 978-0-06-136180-7, page 28:

     Among primitive peoples whatever appears unusual, singular, horrendous, frightening, outside the pattern of habit and social life, becomes transferred into the sphere of the hierophanic. Whatever is in some way 'perfect' is also considered to be hierophanic, […]

   • 2002, Hubert Damisch; Janet Lloyd, transl., “Sign and Representation”, in A Theory of Cloud: Toward a History of Painting, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, ISBN 978-0-8047-3439-4, page 44:

     To borrow from the vocabulary of the history of religions, cloud seems to have a hierophanic significance; in other words, it is an object that manifests that which is sacred, or contributes to its manifestation. However, the identification of an isolated hierophanic element is not, in itself, interesting.

   • 2002, Richard A. Schoenherr, “Hierarchy and Hierophany”, in David Yamane, editor, Goodbye Father: The Celibate Male Priesthood and the Future of the Catholic Church, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-508259-3, page 125:

     For the Catholic Church, priesthood is the structural mechanism by which the believing community normally gains access to its foundational hierophanic faith-events. By means of the socially constructed hierarchic power invested in it, priesthood accesses, coordinates, and controls hierophanic power. The only authentically religious use of priestly hierarchic power, however, is to produce, disseminate, and maintain the ascetical and mystical means of fostering awareness and submission to the Ultimate Source of hierophanic power: Divine Being.

   • 2008 spring, Patrick J. Crerand, “The Tornadic Impulse in the Short Fiction of Michael Martone and William Gass: A Tornadic Utterance with Criticism”, in The Land of Good Deeds (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation), Lafayette, La.: University of Louisiana at Lafayette, OCLC 235973527, page 4:

     The tornado could be added to the list. Its characteristics and shape certainly place it in the more hierophanic phenomenon of the sky, for what better metaphor for a tornado than the finger of God, that appendage that links the celestial to the terrestrial?

   • 2008, Victoria Kennick Urubshurow, “Approaching Religious Traditions”, in Introducing World Religions, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-77269-3, page 22:

     Imaginal players are normally from an a-historical realm of "reality." They tend to appear in accounts of hierophanic history rather conventional history. Some people claim to perceive these figures through the creative imagination. And though the existence of imaginal players cannot be verified through scientific methods, they live in the world of meaning of religious people. Imaginal players may be anthropomorphic (with human form), theriomorphic (with animal form), or polymorphic (with multiple forms). For instance, (1) the Hebrew patriarch Jacob wrestled with an angel who looked like a man; (2) A buffalo may appear in the visions of Native Americans performing the Sun Dance; and (3) Hindu Arjuna saw Kṛṣṇa display countless heads and arms in an astounding panoramic vision of "time itself" while in his chariot on the battlefield.

Synonyms

• hierophanical (less common)

Related terms

• hierophanically
• hierophany