Cosmos and History: The Myth of the Eternal Return by Mircea Eliade (PDF)

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User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I am a newcomer to the scholarship of Eliade, being referred to him, through lecture, only recently by the late Terence McKenna (who explicitly mentions the universally respected academic cornerstone “Shamanism”) and Stephan Hoeller. In my initial interest for finding his works I was concerned with where to enter the massive corpus, having already a keen insight into the subjects of cultural and religious psychology (that is to say, their history). By reading a fair amount of reviews on the highly rated tomes, I came across one that mentions Eliade himself recommending this particular offering as a starting place to his brand of information; this a result of Eliade being asked–as he often was, apparently–basically, `Where would one begin with you?’ Having that come straight from the source, it was simply a matter of placing my order (along with “Shamanism”), and embarking upon my studies in his stream of thought.I could regale the reader with a long and involved report, but would rather say something more to the point: I cannot praise this book too much. It comes highly recommended to anyone interested in the main differences, psychologically speaking, between our distant “ahistorical” ancestors’ (from across the globe) and our own “historicistic” modes of religious worship, social activity, and spiritual reconciliation to “time”. Eliade touches upon the non-Jungian archetypes that comprise the tribal structure, and how actual events became interpreted mythologically (thus meaning nothing in themselves); how archaic man was clearly freer than we, his time-bound successors–freer to approach the deity, to appease the deity, to co-create with the deity, et cetera. He concludes with how and why such a disposition, such a world is no longer available to us, being culturally resigned to the temporal realms (via clocks, and other mundane, “profane” scheduling systems). Do not be fooled by the short length–these are considerably deep waters, if one is not well-versed in the material. Eliade is damn thorough, making an astounding number of references to groups and cultures, authors and works, that might not be at the forefront of your brain or tip of your tongue (his acumen is found to be quite impressive). Aside from reasonably sober expositions, Eliade lends himself to an immensely enjoyable and accessible reading–even inspiring in certain spots. Here is the perfect balance of scholarship and entertainment; for some this will reveal itself to be another piece of “the big puzzle”, for others it will be a catalyst to starting that puzzle. Read it for fun, homework, inner-work, re-read it for clarification–whatever–the value is immeasurable.

⭐I got the book in its entirety but the only thing is that its not the same cover art. It’s minimal but please advertise the book as it comes.

⭐Great book, BUT… I have the same issue as another reviewer – typos/errors all over the front and back cover: every instance of ‘io’ (as in ‘religion’ or ‘nation’) is replaced by a superscript numeral ‘2’, including the front cover subtitle. And there’s more. See photo. The interior is fine because it’s just a scan from a previous edition, but as with the other reviewer, Amazon and Princeton shouldn’t be selling these faulty copies. Ordered via Prime, not third-party.

⭐This book is a classic must read and is easy to understand even for novice students of religion and culture. The book sent to me by Amazon must have been a misprint copy that should have been destroyed by the publisher. It contains many fun little printing mistakes where letters are often replaced by symbols. For example, the phrase “history of religions” is printed “history of relig2ns”. They charged $22 for this copy that was likely meant to be sent to a recycling facility.

⭐So far, this is a very good book that has a unique vision of religion. While most religion texts focus on either A) Christianity, B) Eastern Philosophy, or C) Atheist Polemics, this is an excellent study on the actual anthropological and existential functioning of religion as an entity. Along with Ludwig Feuerbach and Daniel Dennett, this stands as a very good, detached, objective study of religion as far as not being a polemic or an apology. I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in general religious studies, especially if you are an Atheist and still have an interest in non-Dawkins literature on religion.

⭐I first read this book as an undergraduate in 1967. I found it very interesting then and it has reverberated with me ever since. Re-reading it from a different perspective, it still holds its fascination. It is not an easy read as it is very dense, and many of the themes are unfamiliar, at least in the way Prof Eliade disccusses them. In the context of ‘the world wil end in 2012″ it is helpful and hopeful as the overall messsage is that the world changes, but is always there

⭐Husband loved the book

⭐I read Eliade in college and wrote papers on him. And now I can’t comprehend a single paragraph.I was pretty smart back then. Or, maybe I’m just kind of dumb now. I don’t know.Read him while you’re young.

⭐Prompt delivery of correct order. Brilliant book.

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