Mircea Eliade

Charting the Playful & Proper Study of Religion

Podcast
Andie Alexander is joined by Sam Gill to talk about his recent book _The Proper Study of Religion_, and they discuss questions of comparison, difference, storytracking, and playfulness in the academic study of religion. Be sure to tune in!

Editors’ Picks, Summer 2018: Studying the “off-the-beaten-track”

Response
In the fourth of our editors' picks, Ray Radford takes "the soppy route on this choice, as David Robertson's interview with David Wilson on 'Spiritualism and Shamanism' was the very first interview/podcast I heard from the RSP way back in my days as an undergrad. This podcast (along with some amazing lecturers and tutors) helped cement that religious studies was the right choice.

Human Consciousness & Religious Reality

Response
Essentially, Kripal calls out the religious studies world for not having a sufficient appreciation of the power of imagination and invites scholars and the interested public into a new comparativism that moves away from strict materialism. It was real to me. There I was, curled into a corner, comforter wrapped around my shaking limbs and sweating torso, twisted in terror in the sinister hours of the morning.

Dressing in Skins of Gods: New Approaches to Aztec Religion

Response
Recent scholarship on Mesoamerican religions has been influenced by Mircea Eliade in a persistent fashion that has yet to be critically addressed. Molly Bassett is an enthusiastic advocate for studying Mesoamerican religion, a welcome new direction in Religious Studies. She credits the critical mentorship of David Carrasco, Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of Latin America Studies at the Harvard Divinity School. Although she does not mention this, his influence makes her an intellectual “granddaughter” of Mircea Eliade, ...

Spiritualism and Shamanism

Podcast
Wilson's 'apprenticeship' model not only gives us a way to conceptualise shamanism without recourse to sui generis discourse, but draws interesting parallels between indigenous cultures and the somewhat hidden world of heterodox religious practices in the West.
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