Znaczenie Mircei Eliadego w religioznawstwie XX wieku

Abstract

Mircea Eliade (1907-1986) dominated in the study of religion in the second half of the 20th century, and his rich scientific output and organizational activity in Chicago belonged to the more important stages in the history of this science. After a three-years’ stay in India, he finished philosophical studies at the University of Bucharest, where he became an assistant of a philosopher Nae Ionescu in the years 1933-1938. After World War II he lectured in Paris and since 1957 – at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. Eliade was a member of many Academies of Sciences and scientific societies as well as a honoris causa doctor of several universities. His abundant scientific output in religious studies and in literature includes approximately 40 books and 2,000 other bibliographical works. Eliade’s scientific work pertaining to the study of religion reflects his genius, diligence, erudition, application of various research approaches and the command of a huge comparative material concerning different geographical spaces and historical epochs. He skillfully combined studies on particular problems with a comparative and synthetic approach, which gave understanding and explanation of given religious phenomena and religion itself. Experts and critics of his work point to the complementation between the threads pertaining to religion, philosophy and literature. The reception of Eliade’s views is both positive and negative. The criticism concerns the general concept of religion, research methods and philosophical assumptions. Besides, it refers both to Eliade’s particular studies (e.g. on shamanism, initiation, myth, symbolism, religions of Australian peoples) and the overall and synthetic view on the religion of the archaic and primeval man, and the followers of contemporary religions. The Romanian scholar of religions collected and described an extremely abundant source material. His works will always be a mine of information, a source of inspiration and the starting point for further studies on religion and theoretical discussion. Through his scientific work as well as didactic and organizational activity, Eliade contributed to the recognition of the autonomy and independence of the study of religion among the humanities. He certainly belonged to the most original and influential researchers of religions and humanists of the second half of the 20th c.