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 works on Romanian scholar Mircea Eliade, Rennie was awarded the Mircea Eliade Centennial Jubilee Medal for contributions to the History of Religions by then-President Traian Băsescu in 2006.

Education

University of Edinburgh Faculty of Divinity Department of Theology and Religious Studies Edinburgh, 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

• '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. London and New York: Oxford University Press (forthcoming 2010): 197-213.
• 'Myths, Models, and Metaphors: religion as model and the philosophy of science', Religion 39/4 (2009): 340-347.
• Review of The Blackwell Companion to the Study of Religion edited by Robert A. Segal and The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion edited by John R. Hinnells. The Heythrop Journal, 50/3 (May 2009): 518-520.
• 'Mircea Eliade: 'Secular Mysticism' and the History of Religions'. Religion, 38/4 (2008): 328-337.
• 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.
• 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 87/2 (2007): 315-16.
• 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 an 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

• Bryan Rennie's homepage at Westminster College