Bryan Rennie

Bryan Rennie (born 1954) is a British historian of religions, the Vira I. Heinz Professor of Religion at Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. Known for his groundbreaking works on Romanian scholar Mircea Eliade, Rennie was awarded the Mircea Eliade Centennial Jubilee Medal for contributions to the History of Religions by Romanian President Traian Băsescu in 2006.

Education

University of EdinburghFaculty of DivinityDepartment of Theology and Religious StudiesEdinburgh, Scotland

Ph.D. in Religious Studies. Doctoral thesis (accepted 1991): "Mircea Eliade: Making Sense of Religion."

M.A. in Religious Studies. (1988) (summa cum laude). Master's Thesis: "W. C. Smith: the Historian of Religion as Theologian."

B.A. in Religious Studies (1977).

Selected works

* "Religion, Terror and Violence: Religious Studies Perspectives", co-edited with Philip L. Tite. London: Routledge, 2008.

* "The International Eliade". Albany, NY: The State University of New York Press, 2007.

* 'Iranian Eschatology and Middle Eastern Religion: The Absence of the Zoroastrian Tradition from Mainstream Anglophone Biblical and Religious Studies'. "The Bulletin of the Council of Societies for the Study of Religion" 36/1 (February, 2007): 3-7.

* "The Influence of Eastern Orthodox Christian Theology on Mircea Eliade’s Understanding of Religion", Proceedings of the University of Chicago’s Conference on Mircea Eliade and Joachim Wach. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (forthcoming).

* Review of "The Western Construction of Religion: Myths, Knowledge and Ideology" by Daniel Dubuisson. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. "The Journal of Religion" (forthcoming).

* Review of "The Study of Religion in a New Key: Theoretical and Philosophical Soundings in the Comparative and General Study of Religion" by Jeppe Sinding Jensen. (David Brown Book Company) Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 2003. "Religion" (forthcoming).

* 'Heterophenomenology as Self-Knowledge' in "Rethinking Religion 101: Praxis, Pedagogy and the Future of Religious Studies", Cambridge University Press (forthcoming).

* "Mircea Eliade: A Critical Reader". London: Equinox Publishing, 2006.

* 'Mircea Eliade: "Apologia pro Opere Suo": An Inspection of Some Foundations', in "Thinking about Religion: A Reader", edited by Ivan Strenski, Oxford: Blackwell (2006). Translated as 'Mircea Eliade: "Apologia pro Opere Suo": Considerarea unor principii fundamentale', in "Origini", 9/4-5 (May-June 2005): 11-14.

* 'Mircea Eliade' in the "Brill Dictionary of Religions", edited by Kocku von Stuckrad. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers (2006).

* 'An Encounter with Eliade,' and 'The Life and Works of Mircea Eliade,' in "Encounters with Mircea Eliade", edited by Mihaela Gligor and Mac Linscott Ricketts, Cluj-Napoca: Casa Cărţii de Ştiinţă, (2005) 199-202 and 203-216.

* 'Mircea Eliade' in "The Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers". Bristol: Thoemmes Press (2005).

* 'Eliade, Mircea (Further Considerations)' in the "Macmillan Encyclopedia of Religion", second edition, Macmillan (2005).

* 'Mircea Eliade: A Secular Mystic in the History of Religions?' "Origini". "Journal of Cultural Studies", 3/4, (2003): 42-54.

* 'Compassion and Self-Awareness as Evidence of Insight.' "The Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory", 4/3 (2003).

* 'Religion after Religion, History after History: Postmodern Historiography and the Study of Religions,' review essay of "Religion after Religion: Gershom Scholem, Mircea Eliade, and Henri Corbin at Eranos" by Steven Wasserstrom, "Beyond the Great Story: History as Text and Discourse" by Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr., "That Noble Dream: The “Objectivity Question” and the American Historical Profession" by Peter Novick, and "Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth Century Europe" by Hayden White. "Method and Theory in the Study of Religion", 15/3 (2003): 68-99.

*Review of Journal, "1935-1944: The Fascist Years", by Mihail Sebastian, Ivan R. Dee, 2000. "Religion" 32/2 (2002): 172-75.

*'Towards a Philosophical Anthropology of Religion: Reconciling a Naturalistic Approach to the Study of Religion with the Belief of the Believer.' "Origins": Caiete Silvane, "Journal of Cultural Studies", 2 (2002): 15-21, also published in "Archaeus" VI/1-2 (2002):167-182.

*'Il n'y a pas un Solution de la Continuité: Eliade, Historiography, and Pragmatic Narratology in the Study of Religion.' "ARC: The Journal of the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University", 30 (2002): 115-137.

*'Count Your Blessings: A Simplified Introduction to the History of Numbering.' "The Westminster College Inquiry Reader", Tapestry Press, 2001.

*"Changing Religious Worlds: The Meaning and End of Mircea Eliade", editor. State University of New York Press, 2001.

*'Understanding Theory: A Response to Robert Segal.' "Culture and Religion", 1/2 (2000): 289-292.

*'A Response to ‘Mircea Eliade, Postmodernism, and the Problematic Nature of Representational Thinking’ by Carl Olson,' "Method and Theory in the Study of Religion", 12/3 (2000): 422-425.

*'Manufacturing McCutcheon: The Failure of Understanding in the Academic Study of Religion.' "Culture and Religion" 1/1 (May 2000): 105-112.

*Review of "Theorizing about Myth" by Robert Segal, University of Massachusetts Press, 1999. "Culture and Religion" 1/1 (May 2000): 149-150.

*Review of "Myth and Religion in Mircea Eliade" by Douglas Allen, Garland Press, 1998. "Religion" 30/2 (April, 2000): 208-210.

*Review of "Manufacturing Religion: The Discourse on Sui Generis Religion and the Politics of Nostalgia" by Russell McCutcheon, Oxford University Press, 1997. "Zygon", 35/2 (June 2000): 455-457.

*'The View of the Invisible World: An Elaboration on Ninian Smart's Analysis of the Dimensions of Religion and of Religious Experience.' Review Essay. "The Bulletin of the Council of Societies for the Study of Religion", 28/3 (1999): 63-68.

*Review of "East-West Encounters in Philosophy and Religion", edited by Ninian Smart and B. Srinivasa Murthy, Longbeach Publications, 1996. Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review, 38/2, 1999.

*'Manufacturing the Sui Generis Discourse: A Response to Russell McCutcheon's Review of Reconstructing Eliade.' "Religion" 28/4 (1998): 413-414.

*'Mircea Eliade,' in "The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy," Edward Craig (ed.), London and New York: Routledge, 1998, Volume 3, 260-263.

*'Actualitatea lui Mircea Eliade' (In English--responses to the editor's questions about Eliade). "Origini: A Review of Literature, Ideas, and the Arts", Vol. 1, Nov.-Dec. 1997, pp. vii & ix.

*'Memory, Identity, and Imagination: Imagining the Past and Remembering Destiny,' in "Memory, History, and Critique. European Identity at the Millennium. Proceedings of the 6th International ISSEI Conference at the University for Humanist Studies, Utrecht, The Netherlands, August 1996", eds. Frank Brinkhuis and Sascha Talmor.

*"Reconstructing Eliade: Making Sense of Religion". New York: State University of New York Press, 1996. Translated into Romanian by Mirella Balta, Gabriel Stanescu, and Stefan Stoenescu as "Reconsiderandu-l Pe Mircea Eliade: O noua viziune asupra religiei", Criterion Publishing, 1999.

*'Mircea Eliade: coupable jusqu'à preuve du contraire?' "Jurnalul Literar" nr. 13-16 (May-June 1994): 2.

*'The Religious Creativity of Modern Humanity: Some Observations on Eliade's Unfinished Thought.' "Religious Studies" 31/2 (1995): 221-235. Translated by Raluca Podocea as: 'Creativitatea religioas a umanitii moderne,' "Jurnalul Literar" nr. 9-12 (aprilie 1994): 4-5.

*'The Diplomatic Career of Mircea Eliade: a Response to Adriana Berger.' "Religion" 22/4 (1992): 375-392. Translated by Lidia Rosu as: 'Cariera diplomatica a lui M. Eliade--un raspuns Adrianei Berger,' "Jurnalul Literar" (Bucharest) nr. 5-8 (feb-mar 1993): 1, 4-5.

*Reviews of "Other Peoples' Myths" by Wendy Doniger and "Metaphorical Worlds" by Samuel R. Levin. "Style", 24/4, Winter 1990.

*'Kali: the Terrible Goddess of Hindu Tantra.' "The Journal of Religious Studies", Patiala, University of the Punjab, 12/2 (Autumn 1989):27-34.

References

* [http://www.westminster.edu/staff/brennie/ Bryan Rennie's homepage at Westminster College]