Homo Religiosus in the Thought of Mircea Eliade

After an academic explication of Eliade’s Homo religiosus and an article illustrating this usage by its application, there still remains much to criticize and perhaps much to misunderstand about Eliade’s understanding of humanity in our religious mode. One of the earliest and most effective critiques of Eliade’s work came in the 1976 volume by John A. Saliba. Gregory Alles pointed out in his article on Homo religiosus that “some, especially anthropologists, question Eliade’s data and methods and have come to the radical conclusion that Eliade’s Homo religiosus is never encountered in the field” and he specifically referred to John Saliba’s critique. In order to give the reader a clearer idea of the objections raised to Eliade’s classification, it is appropriate here to cite Saliba’s work at some length. From Homo Religiosus in the Works ofMircea Eliade (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1976 ). This excerpt comes from pp. 57–65. All rights reserved. Copyright © 1976 by Brill Academic Publishers. Reprinted by permission of Brill Academic Publishers.