Mircea Eliade on Phenomenology of Religion and Creative Hermeneutics

Mircea Eliade is well known as an influential thinker in the field of religious studies. He established different method in this field. By clarifying Eliade’s method, we will try to analyze his criticism of other methods on religious studies. From Eliade’s point of view, a study of the history of religions helps the phenomenology of religion and hermeneutics to look at rituals and religious ideas differently. Therefore, he opposes the evolutionary and empirical methods as non-sympathetic methods. In his approach, myths and symbols possess great value for the study of religions. He believes time, space and cosmos are in relationship with the sacred for Homo Religiosus. The cosmos has meaning only when it is marked as Hierophany. Rituals are also a repetition of illo tempore. In this thesis I review Eliade’s backgrounds on methodology, and recognize the main ideas: The sacred antireductionism, sympathy and value-free method, sacred-profane dialectic, empirical and historical approach, investigate structures, comparative attitude, interpretation and creative hermeneutics. Critics phenomenology of religion and Eliade’s methodology is the end of this.