Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day. His theory that hierophanies form the basis of religion, splitting the human experience of reality into sacred and profane space and time, has proved influential. One of his most influential contributions to religious studies was his theory of Eternal Return, which holds that myths and rituals do not simply commemorate hierophanies, but, at least to the minds of the religious, actually participate in them. His literary works belong to the fantastic and autobiographical genres. The best known are the novels Maitreyi, Noaptea de S�nziene, Isabel ?i apele diavolului and Romanul Adolescentului Miop, the novellas Domni?oara Christina and Tinere?e f?r? tinere?e, and the short stories Secretul doctorului Honigberger and La ?ig?nci. 

March 13th, 1907 in Bucharest  /  Died:   Apr 22nd, 1986