WHAT’S WRONG WITH SYMBOLS? REVISITING MIRCEA ELIADE IN THE 21st CENTURY
WHAT’S WRONG WITH SYMBOLS? REVISITING MIRCEA ELIADE IN THE 21st CENTURY
Author(s): Jess HollenbackSubject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Romanian Assoc. for the History of Religions & Inst. for the History of Religions, Romanian Academy
Keywords: Eliade; symbols; symbolization; symbolism; paranormal phenomena; active imagination; imaginational empowerment; stigmatization.
Summary/Abstract: This article argues that today’s scholars of religion need to stop ignoring symbols and symbolization and seriously revisit Eliade’s contributions to the symbolic dimension of religion. This article also suggests that this revisitation of Eliade would benefit greatly if it simultaneously made use of the many excellent scholarly studies of symbols and symbolization that have been published during the last twenty years or so by linguists, paleoanthropologists, ethologists, cognitive neuroscientists, theologians, and psychologists. This paper concludes by revisiting Eliade’s persistent fascination with the paranormal and suggests some ways that revalorizing both the symbolic and the paranormal might be productive directions for further research
Journal: ARCHÆVS. Studies in the History of Religions
- Issue Year: XV/2011
- Issue No: 01+02
- Page Range: 161-185
- Page Count: 25
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF
