On “Tradiţionalism” and Mircea Eliade
This study attempts to provide further clarifications regarding the influence of traditionalism on Mircea Eliade development (to avoid any confusion, traditionalism will be called by its synonym: perennialism), as René Guénon founded it, demonstrating that it is not as crucial as one may think. It also shows Mark Sedgwick’s book (Against the Modern World) insufficient documentation, at least in what concerns Eliade, concluding that he was not actually a perennialist, even one soft as Sedgwick calls him, but an optimist who saw that the sacred is camouflaged into the profane, and he shared this to the world.
Keywords: Mircea Eliade, Traditionalism, perennialism, René Guénon, Mark Sedgwick, Against the Modern World
1.[1] Michel Gardaz, ‘The Trojan horse of philosophia perennis’: Mircea Eliade’s quest of spiritual transformation, în Religion, 38, 2008
2.[1] Mark Sedgwick, Against the Modern World. Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press, 2004
3.[1] Natale Spineto, Mircea Eliade and Traditionalism, în Aries, 1 (1), 2001, p. 145
4.[1] “the central notion of Traditionalism, the very idea of a primordial Tradition”
5.[1] Natale Spineto, Mircea Eliade and “Traditional Thought”în Bryan Rennei (ed.), The International Eliade, Albany, State University of New York Press (SUNY Series, Issues in the Study of Religion), 2007
6.[1] Şi pentru comparaţie, studiul pertinent al lui Harry Oldmeadow, The Comparative Study of Eastern and Western Metaphysics: a Perennialist Perspective, Sophia, 46, 2007, p. 49-64
7.[1] Trad. rom. de Anca Manolescu: Réne Guénon, Criza lumii moderne, Humanitas, 1993
8.[1] Pentru o privire sintetică a principalelor scrieri ale lui Eliade, vezi Dorin David, De la Eliade la Culianu. I [From Eliade to Culianu. I], Cluj-Napoca, Eikon, 2010
9.[1] Mircea Eliade, Jurnal I [Journal], Bucureşti, Humanitas, 1993, p. 573
10.[1] Mircea Eliade, Naşteri mistice [Birth and Rebirth], Bucureşti, Humanitas, 1995, p.15
11.[1] Mircea Eliade, Insula lui Euthanasius (1943) [Euthanasius’ Island], în Drumul spre Centru, Bucureşti, Univers, 1991
12.[1] Mircea Eliade, Jurnal. Vol. II [Journal], Bucureşti, Humanitas, 1993, p. 166
