movement death_date death_place influenced birth_place subject influences imagesize nationality parents birth_date period genre image article_title name occupation
modernism '' criterion '' '' trăirism '' 22 april 1986 chicago , illinois , united states marcel , andrei oișteanu , mariana Șora , mihail Șora avramescu , ioan petru culianu , wendy doniger bucharest , romania history history , political history of religion , philosophy of religion , cultural honoré , james george frazer , andré gide , rené guénon de , bogdan petriceicu hasdeu , aldous huxley , nae ionescu balzac , nicolae iorga , carl jung , rudolf otto , , giovanni papini , gerardus van der leeuw , miguel de surendranath unamuno , joachim wach dasgupta , julius evola 250px romanian gheorghe eliade jeana née vasilescu 9 march 1907 1921 -- 1986 fantasy , autobiography , travel literature mircea.eliade.jpg mircea eliade
 mircea eliade historian , essayist , novelist , philosopher , short story writer , journalist
mircea eliade

mircea eliade -lrb- ; -- april 22 , 1986 -rrb- was a romanian historian of religion , fiction writer , philosopher , and professor at the university of chicago .
he was a leading interpreter of religious experience , who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day .
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 influential contributions to religious studies was his theory of `` eternal return '' , which holds that myths and rituals do not simply commemorate hierophanies , but , at least to the minds of the religious , actually participate in them .
his literary works belong to the fantastic and autobiographical genres .
the best known are the novels `` maitreyi '' -lrb- `` la nuit bengali '' or `` bengal nights '' -rrb- , `` noaptea de sânziene '' -lrb- `` the forbidden forest '' -rrb- , `` isabel și apele diavolului '' -lrb- `` isabel and the devil 's waters '' -rrb- and `` romanul adolescentului miop '' -lrb- `` novel of the nearsighted adolescent '' -rrb- , the novellas `` domnișoara christina '' -lrb- `` miss christina '' -rrb- and `` tinerețe fără tinerețe '' -lrb- `` youth without youth '' -rrb- , and the short stories `` secretul doctorului honigberger '' -lrb- `` the secret of dr. honigberger '' -rrb- and `` la Țigănci '' -lrb- `` with the gypsy girls '' -rrb- .
early in his life , eliade was a noted journalist and essayist , a disciple of romanian far-right philosopher and journalist nae ionescu , and a member of the literary society `` criterion '' .
in the 1940s , he served as cultural attaché to the united kingdom and portugal .
several times during the late 1930s , eliade publicly expressed his support for the iron guard , a fascist and antisemitic political organization .
his political involvement at the time , as well as his other far right connections , were frequently criticised after world war ii .
noted for his vast erudition , eliade had fluent command of five languages -lrb- romanian , french , german , italian , and english -rrb- and a reading knowledge of three others -lrb- hebrew , persian , and sanskrit -rrb- .
he was elected a posthumous member of the romanian academy .
