Mircea Eliade was an intensely prolific author whose work spanned religion, philosophy, and fiction. As one of the pre-eminent interpreters of world religion, he gained international fame for his profound insights into religious symbols and imagery. His deep interest in the unconscious mind and the central theme of erotic love in his novels highlight his fascination with human psychology and desire. Eliade's vast output, totaling over 1,300 pieces, establishes him as a significant figure in both literary and academic spheres.
In volume 2 of this monumental work, Mircea Eliade continues his magisterial progress through the history of religious ideas. The religions of ancient China, Brahmanism and Hinduism, Buddha and his contemporaries, Roman religion, Celtic and German religions, Judaism, the Hellenistic period, the Iranian syntheses, and the birth of Christianity—all are encompassed in this volume.
"No one has done so much as Mr. Eliade to inform literature students in the West about 'primitive' and Oriental religions...Everyone who cares about the human adventure will find new information and new angles of vision."--Martin E. Marty, "New York Times Book Review"
A common belief in modern scientific society is that "magic" is a mere collection of outdated and nonsensical practices. This work challenges that notion, offering a scholarly exploration of magic's role and its evolution into contemporary forms. According to Ioan Couliano, Renaissance magic was a scientifically grounded attempt to influence individuals through an understanding of motivations, especially erotic ones. The core idea was that sexual desire could sway everyone and everything. Additionally, magicians employed advanced memory techniques to shape the imaginations of their subjects. Couliano posits that magic serves as a precursor to modern psychological and sociological disciplines, positioning the magician as a forerunner to psychoanalysts and marketing professionals. Couliano delves into the works of influential figures like Giordano Bruno, Marsilio Ficino, and Pico della Mirandola, shedding light on various facets of Renaissance culture, including heresy, medicine, astrology, alchemy, courtly love, classical mythology, and even fashion. While science has become the dominant narrative of our age, magic once provided a similar narrative during the Renaissance. The reliance on images in magic faced repression during the Reformation, leading to its decline in favor of precise science and technology. Couliano's insightful scholarship revives the significance of magic, appealing to a diverse audience in the humanities
Harper Torchbooks paperback edition published under the title Cosmos and history, New York, 1959--Copyright page.
In The Quest Mircea Eliade stresses the cultural function that a study of the history of religions can play in a secularized society. He writes for the intelligent general reader in the hope that what he calls a new humanism "will be engendered by a confrontation of modern Western man with unknown or less familiar worlds of meaning." "Each of these essays contains insights which will be fruitful and challenging for professional students of religion, but at the same time they all retain the kind of cultural relevance and clarity of style which makes them accessible to anyone seriously concerned with man and his religious possibilities."—Joseph M. Kitagawa, Religious Education
Demonstrates universal religious experience and shows how humanity's effort to live within a sacred sphere has manifested itself in myriad cultures from ancient to modern times; and, how certain beliefs, rituals, symbols, and myths have, with interesting variations, persisted.
Originally published under the title FROM PRIMITIVES TO ZEN, this comprehensive anthology contains writings vital to all the major non-Western religious traditions, arranged thematically. Here are colorful descriptions of deities, creation myths, depictions of death and the afterlife, teachings on the relationship between humanity and the sacred, religious rituals and practices, prayer and hymns.
Shows that myth and symbol constitute a mode of thought that not only came before that of discursive and logical reasoning, but is an essential function of human consciousness. The author analyzes powerful and ubiquitous symbols that have ruled the mythological thinking of East and West in many times and at many levels of cultural development.
In this landmark book the renowned scholar of religion Mircea Eliade lays the groundwork for a Western understanding of Yoga, exploring how its guiding principle, that of freedom, involves remaining in the world without letting oneself be exhausted by such "conditionings" as time and history. Drawing on years of study and experience in India, Eliade provides a comprehensive survey of Yoga in theory and practice from its earliest foreshadowings in the Vedas through the twentieth century. The subjects discussed include Patañjali, author of the Yoga-sutras; yogic techniques, such as concentration "on a Single Point," postures, and respiratory discipline; and Yoga in relation to Brahmanism, Buddhism, Tantrism, Oriental alchemy, mystical erotism, and shamanism.
