About the Book
This anthology is a collection of key essays by and about the Romanian-American Historian of Religions, Mircea Eliade (1907-1986). It introduces the beginning student to the terms and categories of Eliade's understanding of religious behaviour as a universal phenomenon: apprehension of the sacred by homo religiosus, humanity's religious mode through hierophanies, revelatory events and objects. The analysis of religious behaviour as the restoration of illud tempus, an alternative continuum of sacred time, through myth, ritual, and symbol is a central feature of that understanding, assumed to have an authentic application in the struggle for freedom from the human condition. As well as Eliade's own understanding and its implication for the study of Religions, the collection alerts the reader to the critical response to the problems of his thought. This includes the issues raised by Eliade's biography, politics, and career as one of the most successful and influential Historians of Religion of the late 20th Century.
Moving from inter-war Romania, through India during the struggle for independence, to war-time London and Lisbon, post-war Paris, and finally to America in the 60s and 70s, Eliade's career traces a complex trajectory involving many problems central to the academic study of religion and culture.
Table of Contents:
Part I: Introduction "Eliade's Life and Times," Bryan Rennie "Introduction to The Sacred and the Profane," Mircea Eliade. Part II: Eliade's Understanding of Religion II.A. Early Understanding "Folklore as an Instrument of Knowledge," Mircea Eliade (trans. Mac Linscott Ricketts) II.B. The Elements of Eliade's Understanding: II.B.1.The Sacred "The Structure and Morphology of the Sacred," Mircea Eliade "The Sacred in the Secular World," Mircea Eliade "Before the Sacred became Theological," William Paden "The Ontology of the Sacred," Bryan Rennie II.B.2. Hierophany "Hierophany," Mircea Eliade and Lawrence Sullivan II.B.3. The Dialectics of the Sacred and the Profane "The Dialectic of the Sacred," Douglas Allen II.B.4. Homo Religiosus "Homo Religiosus," Gregory Alles "Homo Faber and Homo Religiosus," Mircea Eliade "Homo Religiosus in the Thought of Mircea Eliade," John Saliba II.B.5. Symbols "What the Symbols Reveal," Mircea Eliade "Notes on the Symbolism of the Arrow," Mircea Eliade "Normative Elements in Eliade's Phenomenology of Symbolism," Robert Baird II.B.6. The Coincidentia Oppositorum "Coincidentia Oppositorum--the Mythical Pattern," Mircea Eliade "Polarity and the Coincidentia Oppositorum," Mircea Eliade "The Concept of the Coincidentia Oppositorum," John Valk II.B.7. Myths "Mythology and the History of Religions," Mircea Eliade "Survivals and Camouflages of Myth," Mircea Eliade "The Myths of the Modern World," Mircea Eliade II.B.8. Illud Tempus "Sacred Time and Myths," Mircea Eliade "Illud Tempus: Time by any Other Name," Bryan Rennie. Part III: Eliade's Methodology III.A. Eliade "Methodological Remarks on the Study of Religious Symbolism," Mircea Eliade "Raffaele Pettazzoni as Exemplar," Mircea Eliade "Foreword from Shamanism," Mircea Eliade III.B. Critiques of Eliade "Distinguishing Religious Phenomena," Douglas Allen "Sermons from a Man on a Ladder," Edmund Leach "Eliade on Buddhism," Richard Gombrich "In Nostro Tempore: on Mircea Eliade," R. J. Zwi Werblowski "Some Theoretical Problems," Ivan Strenski. Part IV: Problems and Themes in Eliade's Thought: IV.A. History and Historicism "The Terror of History," Mircea Eliade "Historical Events and Structural Meaning in Tension," Mircea Eliade "Eliade and History," Douglas Allen "How Historical is the History of Religions," Robert Segal "Mircea Eliade as 'anti-historian' of Religion," Gilford Dudley III IV.B. Eliade and Postmodernism "Eliade and Postmodernism," Bryan Rennie IV.C. Eliade's Literature "On Reading Eliade's Stories as Myths for Moderns," Mac Linscott Ricketts "The Disguises of Miracle," Matei Calinescu IV.D. Eliade's Religion "The Secret Nostalgia of Mircea Eliade for Paradise," Ansgar Paus "Orthodox Mystical Tradition and the Comparative Study of Religion," A. F. C. Webster IV.E. Eliade's Politics "Blind Pilots," Mircea Eliade "Meditation on the Burning of Cathedrals," Mircea Eliade
About the Author :
Bryan Rennie is Vera I. Heinz Professor of Religion at Westminster College, Pennsylvania.
