The Religious Studies System of Mircea Eliade: The Phenomenology of Religion or the Politics of Myth?

Abstract

The aim of the article is to compare Mircea Eliade concept of religion with the tradition of the phenomenology of religion. The well-established idea of the existence of the so-called Chicago school, usually understood as a form of phenomenology of religion on American soil, raises great doubts. Modern researchers argue that there is no scientific connection between the leaders of this school (J. Wach and M. Eliade), and the very concept of Chicago school is a construct created by a student of J. Wach, J. Kitagawa. To verify these claims, the article has analyzed the central concepts of Eliade’s system: the idea of the center of religion, hierophany, crypto-religion, his ideas are compared with the systems of the classical phenomenology of religion — R. Otto, F. Heiler, and J. Wach. The article concludes that Eliade did not belong to the phenomenological tradition of studying religion, either in its Dutch or German versions. The concepts of Illud tempus, nostalgia for the origins, hierophany, systematics through the archaization, manifestations of sacred space and time, which form the core of the Eliade’s system, have no parallels in the work of classical phenomenologists. It is shown that Eliade’s religious concept was rooted not in the phenomenological tradition, but in his inner psychological experience. In its core lay the search for an antidote to historical reductionism, the desire to escape from the necessary processes of aging and existential uncertainty into an idealized image of the eternal past. This psychological orientation of Eliade is related to the so called the politics of myth, which tried to rehabilitate the mythological consciousness, to which C. G. Jung, J. Campbell, H. Corbin belonged. Nevertheless, Eliade’s project is similar to the phenomenology of religion, since religion is understood by him as sui generis.