born March 9, 1907, Bucharest, Rom.
died April 22, 1986, Chicago, Ill., U.S.
Romanian-born U.S. historian of religion.
He studied Sanskrit and Indian philosophy at the University of Calcutta, then returned to complete his Ph.D. at the University of Bucharest, where he taught until 1939. In 1945 he moved to Paris to teach at the Sorbonne, and from 1956 he taught at the University of Chicago. Eliade considered religious experiences to be credible phenomena, manifestations of the sacred in the world, and his work traced the forms they have taken throughout the world and through time. He founded the journal History of Religions in 1961. His books include The Myth of the Eternal Return (1949) and A History of Religious Ideas (3 vol., 197885); he edited the 16-volume Encyclopedia of Religion (1987).