Eliade’s Legacy 25 Years Later: A Critical Tribute
Eliade’s Legacy 25 Years Later: A Critical Tribute

Summary/Abstract: During his lifetime, Mircea Eliade was often described as the world’s foremost scholar of symbolism, myth, and religion, but late in his life and during the past 25 years his influence has greatly declined. What remains of that once influential Eliade? I examine the controversies surrounding Eliade, his scholarship, and his legacy through the perspectives of supporters and critics. I suggest how one might examine Eliade’s legacy mythically and nonmythically. While granting many legitimate criticisms, I maintain that some of what Eliade offered remains very significant today, but only if Eliade’s scholarly approach is selectively appropriated and reconstituted in new, open-ended, contextually sensitive ways and is integrated with the contributions of non-Eliade approaches.

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