Mircea Eliade Sixty Years Old

Author(s): Geo Widengren

Source: Numen, Vol. 14, Fasc. 3 (Nov., 1967), pp. 165-166
Published by: BRILL
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3269604 .
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 MIRCEA ELIADE SIXTY YEARS OLD

Prof. Mircea Eliade shares with Prof. Kerenyi the talent for
literatureand the interestin depthpsychology.It is no fortuitous coin-
cidence that both belong to the great names of the lecturersat the
"Eranos-Tagungen"of Ascona. In the fieldof the historyof religion
theymoreovershare a commonpredilectionfor the studyof the myth
and its settingin life. But althoughstartingfroma philologicalbasis
in Sanskritand Indian studies Mircea Eliade has moved ratherfar
away fromboth India and philology.However, some of his best and
most knownworks remainwithinthe sphereof Indian religion,such
as his books "Le Yoga, Immoraliteet Liberte indienne"and "Techni-
ques du Yoga". But fromIndia Eliade movednorthwards to theCentral
Asiatic and Eurasiatic regionswithhis admirable"Le Chamanismeet
les Techniques Archaiques de l'Extase", and in all his small volumes
publishedby Gallimardhe has coveredmore or less the whole earth-
but witha markedemphasison the culturesand religionsof illiterate
peoples. Some of thesebooks have been real best-sellers,also in Eng-
lish and Germantranslations, for Prof. Eliade is possessedof an easy
style and a suggestiveand persuasivemannerof arguing.It is quite
obvious thatthesebooks,veryoftenconcernedwiththe studyof sym-
bolism, have met a real need among our time's educated public. A
preliminarysummaryof Eliade's phenomenological views were given
in his "Traite d'Histoiredes Religions",whichby the way is notat all
historicallyorientated,but purelyphenomenological, though also the
Germantranslationhas a rather misleading sub-title"Elemente der
Religionsgeschichte". I mentionthis fact,in itselfa triflebecausethere
has been some discussionconcerningthe method,used by Eliade and
his pretendedlack of sense for history- an accusationwhich I per-
sonallyconsiderfoundedon a misunderstanding.
As shown by the last observationProf. Eliade is still a subject of
discussion,and this because he himselfhas contributed so muchto the
discussionof the problemstreatedby him. He has reallymeditatedon
the methodsof the studyof religionand he has writtensomewordsof
criticismconcerningpeople- like the writerof theselines- who are
too much occupied by historicaland philologicalproblemsand there-

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166 Mircea Eliade Sixty years old
Widengren,

foremiss somethingof the necessarysurveyof the field.I have really

appreciatedthis word of warning,but I feel that somethingcould be
said in defenceof our methodstoo. However,theselines are notmeant
as "plaidoyer"formyown methods,butas a smallexpressionof thanks
forwhat Mircea Eliade, one of the greatnamesin our field,has meant
for the both historicaland phenomenologicalstudy of religion.His
attachmentto the Universityof Chicago is a source of inspirationfor
researchworkand teachingin America.It is fromthe European point
of view a pitythatEurope missed its chanceand thatU.S.A. took it.

GEO WIDENGREN

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