The Study On The Interpretation System Of Eliade's Religious Symbolism

Mircea Eliade is eminent in religious study.His study focuses on the universal phenomenon of religion.He combines phenomenology with history as studying method,that put diachronic materials into synchronic research in order to figure out their universal meaning.On the interpretational dimension,he takes homo religiosus's holy experiences as research basis to reveal transcend meaning of life.Studying him will not only understand the whole development of western religion,but also help us to understand the minority cultural symbols,especially the Tibetan's.As one of the most prominent religious historians in 20~thh century,Mircea Eliade establish unique historical religious phenomenology based on the critique of the reductionist theory developed by Taylor,Freud,Durkheim and etc.Mircea Eliade did an enormous and long-run study during his whole life,not much people can compare with.Not only did he study Shamanism and Yoga,but also study witchcraft and spagirism.Not only did he take interested in religions in India and Iran,but also the religions in Africa,Australia and America.Because of his tremendous study,he is regarded as an encyclopedic religious scholar.Normally thinking that there are no central clues in his whole researching area,but it is not much right that there at least is one central clue in his eminent study that is through different symbolic forms homo religious reach a holy experience,which will make them to get rid of time,remove historical feeling away,promoting their lives to the high level of cosmic ontology and melting away the sufferings in reality.Above all,symbols are the key for homo religious to experience the holy in Eliade's thought.There are many valuable studies about Eliade,but there still a lot to do,especially the systemically and entirely study about his interpretational system of religious symbols.So this text will comb out his interpretational system of religious symbols as his central thought in his thought.Following will get Eliade's interpretational system of religious symbols entirely from theoretical basis,logic establishment,historical elements and human care.Firstly,on theoretical basis,taking Eliade's interpretational system of religious symbols into the big background of religious study to analyze his critique of the theory ofreductionist-evolutionismandhisinherenceanddevelopmentofthe phenomenology-historical modal adopted by Rudolf Otto.Eliade uses the method of suspending judgement and essential intuition of phenomenology to make holiness as an element in the structure of human consciousness,and also as a particular and irreducible element of religion.Holiness is not beyond the secular world,it would appear only by secular matters.One symbol can have various meaning which only can be understood by interpretational approach.Eliade want to integrate disorderly and unsystematic symbols into his structural modal and to interpret these symbols'meaning for human beings,so that to realize the change from explanation to interpretation.Secondly,on logic establishment,using Eliade's core concept of homo religious,hierophany and symbols to analyze the religious holy experience reached by homo religious.Hierophany is dialectical unity,which is secular on its form and is holy on its essence,this is Eliade's dialectics of hierophany.The secular form of hierophany is countless symbols,include the sky,the earth,mountains,rivers and temples,dwellings,stones and even a passage of wood.For the sake of more systematically study Eliade's symbolic system,the study will reconstruct the symbolic system from both the dimension of vertical-form and horizonal-content.Vertical-form is the formal structure,such as the universe,the heaven,the earth,and plants.Horizonal-content is the inner structure,such as myths,rituals,and symbols.As essence structure,in order to realize reconstruction of his symbolic interpretation system.Both the vertical-form and horizonal-content unit the cosmic creativity and life transcend,the earth cultivation and fertility,plants and life,and also combine the myths with prototype,rituals with divine,symbols with divine carriers.Above all,reconstructing his enormous interpretational system of symbols to make the system more systematize and methodize.Thirdly,on historical elements,it will be from western existentialism,Eliade's life experience and his motherland's history to investigate his anti-historicism.A conclusion will be gotten that he adopted a non-historical priority and religious historiography,of combining phenomenology and history with life experience.Although he is anti-historicist,he is not against history itself.His view of history influences his analyzation on homo religious,and continuously emphasize the time circulation and historical disappearance.His most eminent characteristic of religious history is that he synthesizes voluminous religious materials into his wizard-religion,myth-ritual religion,and religious-salvation religion,and them reveal their homogeneity.Fourthly,on human care,it will from the angle of ontology,indicated by Eliade's religious symbolic interpretation,to answer the beginning of Eliade's interpretation.He puts myths,the prototype of human,on the cosmic ontology to discuss the modal ofcosmology of human being,namely a kind of openly life being that is holy,transcend and being-towards-death,which formed a strike contrast with pessimistic existentialism in that time.Finally,there would analyze Tibetan cultural symbols specifically to research the application of the method taken by Eliade,such as diachronic research and synchronic research,structure and form,meaning and transcendence,dimension and theory,hoping to figure out the methodological foundation for the minority symbols' study in reality.