By “the holy” and “the sacred” we in the twentieth
century denote what partakes of qualities ascribed to
the divine. In some current contexts the two terms
appear virtually interchangeable, especially if they set
God or religion over against the profane or secular.
In other contexts, the meanings differ. This article
attempts a description of the relationship of the words
“holy” and “sacred” in common adjectival usage, fol-
lowed by a discussion of their role as key terms in the
organization of explicit discourse about an idea.
