ميرچا الياده و پديدار شناسي دين

Mircea Eliade and the Phenomenology of Religion

The social studies of religion, despite their high importance in Iran, have not been sufficiently dealt with. Most of the studies in this regard suffer from two great deficiencies. Firstly, the distinctive point and the features of the religious affair are not considered and they are often regarded as the same as other social phenomena. Secondly, the methodology used in these studies is mostly of an empirical character. This is because the main paradigm governing the religious studies in Iran is still Dorkimʹs positivist paradigm of social reality, while most religious phenomena, especially the monotheistic religiosity, enjoy unique characteristics which make them incomparable to other social phenomena. This paper reviews Mircea Eliadeʹs viewpoints. His phenomenological studies enjoy to some extent the privilege of being distant from the positivist paradigm of religious studies by stressing the independence of religious affair; and this very feature can inspire us in attempting to access the methodology appropriate to features and properties of the religious phenomena. The writer uses a theoretical approach, aiming at explaining the religious studies from a non-positivist point of view in Mircea Eliadeʹs opinion.