The myth of the eternal return : or, Cosmos and history / Mircea Eliade ; translated from the French by Willard R. Trask.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Eliade, Mircea, 1907-1986.

Series:

Bolingen series ; no. 46.

Bolingen series ; no. 46

Standardized Title:

Mythe de l'éternel retour. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Cosmology.

Physical Description:

xv, 195 pages ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

[Princeton, N.J.] : Princeton University Press, [1954]

Summary:

This founding work of the history of religions, first published in English in 1954, secured the North American reputation of the Romanian emigre-scholar Mircea Eliade (1907-1986). Making reference to an astonishing number of cultures and drawing on scholarship published in no less than half a dozen European languages, Eliade's "The Myth of the Eternal Return makes both intelligible and compelling the religious expressions and activities of a wide variety of archaic and "primitive" religious cultures. While acknowledging that a return to the "archaic" is no longer possible, Eliade passionately insists on the value of understanding this view in order to enrich our contemporary imagination of what it is to be human. Jonathan Z. Smith's new introduction provides the contextual background to the book and presents a critical outline of Eliade's argument in a way that encourages readers to engage in an informed conversation with this classic text.

Notes:

Issued with various printing dates.

Includes index.

Bibliography: pages 165-174.

ISBN:

0691097984

0691017778

OCLC:

24529327