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ABSTRACT
The interpretation of extensive collections of texts is central to the history of religions. Bruce Lincoln’s Secrets, Lies, and Consequences paints a decisive picture of Mircea Eliade based on the latter’s articles from 1932 to 1939. Before his death Mac Linscott Ricketts donated the contents of his office to me and to Liviu Bordaş and I am in possession of his many translations of Eliade’s Romanian writings otherwise unavailable in English. With reference to all of these translations a very different picture of Eliade’s position can be suggested than that proposed by Lincoln. The relevance of Moshe Idel’s 2014 analysis of Eliade is also considered. Conflicting interpretations can best be resolved by open access to primary sources. Ricketts’ translations – and more – need to be made available for non-Romanian readers to make their own assessments.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 I take the expression “ultranationalism” from Idel Citation2014, 210, 257.
2 “Between January 1937 and the imposition of the royal dictatorship in February 1938, Eliade gave open and enthusiastic support, through his periodical writing, to the Legionary Movement” (Ricketts Citation1988, 882).The existence, although not the substance, of the articles had all been available since Allen and Doeing Citation1980 and were mostly listed in Dennis Doeing’s Ph.D. thesis of Citation1975.
3 Lincoln was prevented from publishing his translations by Sorin Alexandrescu, Eliade’s nephew and co-executor of the Eliade literary estate, although the second executor, T. David Brent, formerly of the University of Chicago Press, apparently gave his “strong support” to their publication (6). Lincoln promises to make his translations available when copyright expires in 2028 (7).
4 Attributed to the archives of the Romanian Information Service (SRI), FD, dossier 573, folder 15, note of 21 March 1938; see Țurcanu Citation2003, 264 n. 70. It was later published in Mezdrea Citation2008, 42–45.
5 Letter to Cezar Petrescu. Handoca Citation2004a, vol. 2, 467–469, Lincoln, 38-39.
6 The Romanian term (semidocţi) has the sense of people who are under-educated, but who think that they’re educated.
7 Letter to Brutus Coste. Handoca Citation2004b vol. 3, 473-475, Lincoln, 45. I thank Matei Iagher for providing the translation.
8 Letter to Ricketts, May 19, 1982 in Gligor and Caloianu Citation2012, 350–351, Lincoln 172 n. 22.
9 I use the French spelling of Eugen Ionescu’s name, Eugène Ionesco, to distinguish him from Nae Ionescu.
10 Eugène Ionesco, letter to Tudor Vianu, September 19, 1945; in Vianu and Alexandrescu Citation1994, vol. 2, 274. Lincoln 84.
11 Sebastian (1907–1945), a Romanian Jewish playwright and author (born Iosif Hechter), was a close friend of Eliade until the two drifted apart during the period of Eliade’s greatest engagement with the Legion. In 1934 Sebastian published De două mii de ani (For Two Thousand Years, Sebastian Citation2016), a novel from the perspective of a Romanian Jew. This caused a considerable stir, mainly because of its inclusion of an obviously anti-Semitic preface written by Sebastian’s (and Eliade’s) mentor, editor, and philosophy professor, Nae Ionescu. (The English translation does not include Ionescu’s preface.)
12 Lincoln 33; quoting from Eliade Citation1937h. The whole of Eliade’s writings from India are relevant to understanding his revulsion for violence combined with his awareness of its inevitability in political struggles for freedom. See, for example, “Conversation with an Indian Nationalist” and “Fragments from a Civil Revolt” in Rennie Citation2001, 191–203.
13 Lincoln 125, quoting an interview conducted by Gabriela Adamşteanu in 1990.
14 Letter of 24 July 1936, to Cioran, cited by Laignel-Lavastine Citation2002, 118. Letter of 15 October 1938 to Coste, in Handoca Citation2004a vol. 3, 473–475. Letter of May 1938 to Petrescu in Handoca Citation2004b vol. 2; 467-469.
15 Handoca Citation1997; 137–268. Handoca Citation1993-2007, a total of eight volumes.
16 See, for example, Eliade Citation2018, especially the Foreword by Bryan Rennie and the Afterword by Sorin Alexandrescu.
17 Eliade Citation1934a, signed with the pseudonym “Ion Plăeşu.” Lincoln’s translation and insertion, 24.
18 Eliade Citation1932, signed “Silviu Nicoară,” another known pseudonym of Eliade’s. Expressions of “philosemitism” were, in the atmosphere of the day, quite risky. As Idel said, it took courage to defend Sebastian.
19 The Spiritual Itinerary (Eliade Citation1927a) was a 12-part feuilleton published between September and November of 1927 in the periodical Cuvântul [The Word]. The quotation about Hitlerism is from Eliade Citation1935b.
20 Lincoln 26. Actually, Eliade began to use the term years earlier, for example in Citation1933a. I see no evidence in Eliade’s writing that he used the term with any anti-Semitic implications whatsoever.
21 Polihroniade (1906–1939), lawyer and journalist, was a friend of Eliade’s who vigorously supported the Legion, He wrote “Convertirea d-lui Mircea Eliade la românism” [“Mircea Eliade’s Conversion to Romanianism”], Axa (another semi-official Legionary paper), I (18, 19 September 1933): 5.
22 Eliade Citation1933d. The disturbance at the Foundation occurred when Nationalist Christian Students protested against a symposium on Gide in the Criterion Series (Eliade, Autobiography, I: 234); Moses Gaster, folklorist, was expelled in 1885 for promoting Jewish freedom; Lazăr Şăineanu, linguist and folklorist, Hasdeu’s most outstanding pupil, was expelled in 1901.
23 I must thank an anonymous reviewer at Religion for making this point.
24 Eliade Citation1927a “Itinerariu Spiritual de Mircea Eliade, I. Linii de orientare” [“Spiritual Itinerary I: Lines of Orientation”] Cuvântul III (857, 6 September 1927): 1-2.
25 To be perfectly clear I must point out that Eliade strongly disapproved of British machinations in India, see the articles cited above, fn. 12.
26 Soliloquii, Colecţia Cartea cu Semne, (1932), Oceanografie, Bucharest: Editura Cultura Poporului, (1934), Fragmentarium, Editura Vremea, (1939), Insula lui Euthanasius, Editura Fundaţiilor Regale, (1943).
27 On the almost universal anti-Semitism in Romania in the interwar period see Lucian Nastasă, Antisemitismul universitar în România (1919–1939), Citation2011.
28 Eliade Citation1937a, Citation1937b, and Citation1938a. The last appeared as three untitled paragraphs in Buna Vestire, II (262, 14 January 1938), under the heading “Prinos de lacrimi și rugăciuni pentru sfânta jertfă de la Majadahonda”—“An offering of tears and prayers for the holy sacrifice at Majadahonda” (in Eliade Citation2001b, 69). Majadahonda was the principality in Spain where Moţa and Marin died. A total of 185 people contributed under that heading.
29 Eliade Citation1937a. It is noteworthy that this is the first article in which—as far as I am aware—Eliade refers to the Legion by name, despite his indirect reference to Codreanu as “a political leader of the youth” in December of 1935 (Eliade Citation1935c). Of the 12 “Legionary” articles in Eliade Citation2001b, only ten mention the Legion by name.
30 Eliade Citation1937i. Regarding the controversy as to whether this article was written by Eliade or not (see Lincoln, 58), the colophon is visible in the photocopy: “Dl. Mircea Eliade, membru al Societății scriitorilor români, a binevoit să ne răspundă următoarele la ancheta ziarului nostru: ‘De ce cred în biruința Mișcării Legionare?’” [“Mr. Mircea Eliade, member of the Society of Romanian Writers, kindly consented to reply as follows to the inquiry of this paper: ‘Why do I believe in the triumph of the Legionary Movement?’”]. Based on this, I accept that it was written by an editor (probably Mihail Polihroniade) based on a verbal response from Eliade. With the possible exception of some specifics of expression, however, it does represent Eliade’s position. On “Dilige … ” see also Eliade Citation1937g.
31 Letter to Brutus Coste (Handoca Citation2004a, vol. 3, 474): “Antipatia se răsfrînge și asupra mea - ceea ce mi se pare grav, căci pînă astăzi eu eram ori iubit, ori urît - dar nu antipatizat.’” (The antipathy is now spreading to me—which is serious, because up until now I was either loved or hated, but not “antipathized.”) Thanks again to Matei Iagher for his translation.
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Bryan Rennie
Bryan Rennie (Ph.D., The University of Edinburgh, 1991) taught from 1992 until 2021 at Westminster College, Pennsylvania, where he held the Vira I. Heinz Chair of Religion for 15 years and chaired the department of Religion, History, Philosophy, and Classics for eight years. He has worked extensively on Mircea Eliade, publishing one monograph (Reconstructing Eliade, SUNY Press, 1996) and three edited volumes (The International Eliade, SUNY Press, 2007; Mircea Eliade: A Critical Reader, Equinox Publishing, 2006; and Changing Religious World: The Meaning and End of Mircea Eliade, SUNY Press, 2001). He has been keynote speaker at the Korean Association for the History of Religion and the Association for the Study of Eastern Christianity. He received the Mircea Eliade Centennial Medal from Traian Băsescu, the President of Romania, in 2006 and the Hereditary Imperial Medal from H.I.H., The Grand Duchess Maria of Russia in 2014. He was Vice President of the North American Association for the Study of Religion from 2006 to 2009. His volume on religion and art, The Ethology of Religion and Art: Belief as Behavior, was published by Routledge in 2020.