Eliade, Mircea (mûr`shə ā'lē-äd`ə), 1907–86, American philosopher and historian of comparative religion, b. Bucharest. He studied Indian philosophy and Sanskrit at the Univ. of Calcutta (1928–31) and taught history of religion and metaphysics in Bucharest (1933–39). A diplomat during World War II, he taught at the Sorbonne (1946–48) and the Univ. of Chicago (1957–85). His work in the systematic study of religions was pioneering; much of his work concentrated on the nature of religious culture and of myths and mystical experiences. Eliade's analysis of rites of passage, rituals marking key transitional moments in the life cycle (e.g., birth, adult initiation, death), influenced many anthropologists. His often controversial books include scholarly works such as The Myth of the Eternal Return (1949), The Sacred and the Profane (1959), and A History of Religious Ideas (3 vol., 1978–85) and novels such as The Forbidden Forest (1955) and The Old Man and the Bureaucrats (1979). Eliade was also editor of the Encyclopedia of Religion (16 vol., 1986).

Eliade, Mircea

(born March 9, 1907, Bucharest, Rom.—died April 22, 1986, Chicago, Ill., U.S.) Romanian-born U.S. historian of religion. He studied Sanskrit and Indian philosophy at the University of Calcutta, then returned to complete his Ph.D. at the University of Bucharest, where he taught until 1939. In 1945 he moved to Paris to teach at the Sorbonne, and from 1956 he taught at the University of Chicago. Eliade considered religious experiences to be credible phenomena, manifestations of the sacred in the world, and his work traced the forms they have taken throughout the world and through time. He founded the journal History of Religions in 1961. His books include The Myth of the Eternal Return (1949) and A History of Religious Ideas (3 vol., 1978–85); he edited the 16-volume Encyclopedia of Religion (1987).

Eliade, Mircea (1907–86) religious scholar, mythographer; born in Bucharest, Rumania. The son of a Rumanian army officer, educated in Rumania and India, he left his native country in 1940, taught in Western Europe and Scandinavia through the early 1950s, and emigrated to the U.S.A. in 1956, where he became a professor at the University of Chicago. His three-volume History of Religious Ideas (1979–85), in which he searched out what he called "the "secrets' of religious history, and of man's destiny on earth," is considered definitive. He also published novels, novellas, and short fiction.