Mircea Eliade
Sign in to saveRomanian-American historian, writer, philosopher and professor at the University of Chicago (1907–1986)
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Mircea Eliade was a Romanian-American scholar who studied religion and mythology across many cultures and became a influential professor at the University of Chicago during the mid-20th century. His work matters because he shaped how people understand religious practices and beliefs worldwide, developing influential theories about the role of the sacred in human societies.
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Person · Open Library
- Born
- 13 Mar 1907
- Died
- 22 Apr 1986
- Works
- 304
Top works
- Die grossen Mythen der Menschheit
- Noaptea de sânziene
- رساله در تاريخ اديان
- Metallurgy, magic and alchemy
- Das Heilige und das Profane
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Listeners · Last.fm
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- 4,677
Article
Mircea Eliade ( Romanian: [ˈmirt͡ʃe̯a eliˈade]; March 13 [O.S. February 28] 1907 – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. One of the most influential scholars of religion of the 20th century and interpreter of religious experience, he established paradigms in religious studies. His theory that hierophanies form the basis of religion, splitting the human experience of reality into sacred and profane space and time, has proved influential. One of his most instrumental contributions to religious studies was his theory of eternal return, which holds that myths and rituals do not simply commemorate hierophanies, but (at least in the minds of the religious) actually participate in them.
Eliade's literary works belong to the fantastic and autobiographical genres. The best known are the novels Maitreyi ('La Nuit Bengali' or 'Bengal Nights', 1933), Noaptea de Sânziene ('The Forbidden Forest', 1955), Isabel și apele diavolului ('Isabel and the Devil's Waters'), and Romanul Adolescentului Miop ('Novel of the Nearsighted Adolescent', 1989); the novellas Domnișoara Christina ('Miss Christina', 1936) and Tinerețe fără tinerețe ('Youth Without Youth', 1976); and the short stories Secretul doctorului Honigberger ('The Secret of Dr. Honigberger', 1940) and La Țigănci ('With the Gypsy Girls', 1963).
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1907 births1986 deaths20th-century Romanian anthropologists20th-century Romanian dramatists and playwrights20th-century Romanian essayists20th-century Romanian historians20th-century Romanian journalists20th-century Romanian male writers20th-century Romanian memoirists20th-century Romanian novelists20th-century Romanian philosophersCommittee on Social Thought