Ioan P. Culianu

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Ioan Petru Culianu or Couliano (January 5, 1950 – May 21, 1991) was a Romanian historian of religion, culture, and ideas, a philosopher and political essayist, and a short story writer. He long served as professor of divinity at the University of Chicago, and also taught the history of Romanian culture at the University of Groningen.

An expert in gnosticism and Renaissance magic, he was a collaborator and disciple of Mircea Eliade, though he gradually distanced himself from his mentor. Culianu published seminal work on the interrelation of the occult, Eros, magic, physics, and history.[1]

Culianu was murdered in 1991. His murder has often been suggested to be the result of his critical view of Romanian national politics. Some elements of the Romanian political right openly celebrated his murder.[1] The Romanian Securitate, which he once lambasted as a force "of epochal stupidity", has also been suspected of involvement and of using puppet fronts on the right as cover.[1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Career

Culianu was born in Iaşi. He studied at the University of Bucharest, then traveled to Italy where he was granted political asylum while attending lectures in Perugia in July 1972. He later graduated from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan.[1] He lived briefly in France and the Netherlands, before leaving Europe for Chicago, in the United States. There, after a stint as visiting professor, he became a professor at the University of Chicago. He took a PhD at the University of Paris IV in January 1987, with the thesis Recherches sur les dualismes d'Occident. Analyse de leurs principaux mythes ("Research into Western Dualisms. An Analysis of their Major Myths"), coordinated by Michel Meslin.

Having completed three doctorates and being proficient in six languages, Culianu specialized in Renaissance magic and mysticism. He became a disciple, and later the literary executor, of Mircea Eliade, the famous historian of religions. He also wrote fiction and political articles.

Culianu had divorced his first wife, and at the time of his death was engaged to Hillary Wiesner, a 27-year woman of Jewish origin, also a graduate divinity student at Harvard University.

[edit] Death

Culianu was murdered in the bathroom of the divinity school, Swift Hall, of the University of Chicago. He was shot once in the back of the head. The identity of the killer and the motive are still unknown.

Speculation arose that he had been killed by former Securitate agents, due to political articles in which he attacked the Communist regime. The murder occurred a year and a half after the Romanian Revolution and Nicolae Ceauşescu's death.

Before being killed, he had published a number of articles and interviews that heavily criticized the Ion Iliescu post-Revolution regime, making Culianu one of the government's most vocal adversaries. Several theories link his murder with Romanian Intelligence, seen by many as a direct successor to the Securitate[1] (various pages of his Securitate files are missing without reason); Culianu had allegedly been threatened by previous anonymous phone calls.[1]

Ultra-nationalist and neo-fascist involvement, as part of an Iron Guard revival in connection on the nationalist discourse of the late years of Ceauşescu's rule and the rise of the Vatra Românească and România Mare parties, was not itself excluded from the scenario;[2] according to Vladimir Tismăneanu: "[Culianu] gave the most devastating indictment of the new union of far left and far right in Romania".[3] As part of his criticism of the Iron Guard, Culianu had come to expose Mircea Eliade's connections with the latter movement during the interwar years (because of this, relations between the two academics had soured for the final years of Eliade's life).[1]

The FBI also investigated the possibility of an occult group having been involved in the killing, owing to Culianu's work in that field.

[edit] Works

[edit] Scholarly works

  • Mircea Eliade, Assisi, Cittadella Editrice, 1978; Mircea Eliade, Bucureşti, Nemira, 1995, 1998(2); Iaşi, Polirom, 2004(3)
  • Iter in Silvis: Saggi scelti sulla gnosi e altri studi, Gnosis, no. 2, Messina, EDAS, 1981
  • Religione e accrescimento del potere, in G. Romanato, M. Lombardo, I.P. Culianu, Religione e potere, Torino, Marietti, 1981
  • Psychanodia: A Survey of the Evidence Concerning the Ascension of the Soul and Its Relevance, Leiden, Brill, 1983
  • Eros et magie a la Renaissance. 1484, Paris, Flammarion, 1984
  • Expériences de l'extase: Extase, ascension et récit visionnaire de l'hellénisme au Moyen Age, Paris, Payot, 1984; Experienze dell'estasi dall'Ellenismo al Medioevo, Bari, Laterza, 1986
  • Gnosticismo e pensiero moderno: Hans Jonas, Roma, L'Erma di Bretschneider, 1985
  • Éros et Magie à la Renaissance. 1484, Paris, Flammarion, 1984; Eros and Magic in the Renaissance, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1987; Eros e magia nel Rinascimento: La congiunzione astrologica del 1484, Milano, Il Saggiatore - A. Mondadori, 1987; Eros şi magie în Renaştere. 1484, Bucureşti, Nemira, 1994, 1999(2); Iaşi, Polirom, 2003(3); Eros y magia en el Renacimiento. 1484, Madrid, Ediciones Siruela, 1999
  • Recherches sur les dualismes d'Occident: Analyse de leurs principaux mythes, Lille, Lille-Thèses, 1986; I miti dei dualismi occidentali, Milano, Jaca Book, 1989
  • Les Gnoses dualistes d'Occident: Histoire et mythes, Paris, Plon, 1990; The Tree of Gnosis, New York, HarperCollins, 1992; Gnozele dualiste ale Occidentului. Istorie si mituri, Bucureşti, Nemira, 1995; Iaşi, Polirom, 2002(2)
  • Out of this World: Otherworldly Journeys from Gilgamesh to Albert Einstein, Boston, Shambhala, 1991; Mas alla de este mundo, Barcelona, Paidos Orientalia, 1993; Călătorii in lumea de dincolo, Bucureşti, Nemira, 1994, 1999(2); Iaşi, Polirom, 2003(3); Jenseits dieser Welt, Munchen, Eugen Diederichs Verlag, 1995
  • I viaggi dell'anima, Milano, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1991
  • The Tree of Gnosis : Gnostic Mythology from Early Christianity to Modern Nihilism, San Francisco, HarperCollins, 1992; Arborele gnozei. Mitologia gnostică de la creştinismul timpuriu la nihilismul modern, Bucureşti, Nemira, 1999
  • Experiences del extasis, Barcelona, Paidos Orientalia, 1994; Experienţe ale extazului, Bucureşti, Nemira, 1997; Iaşi, Polirom, 2004(2)
  • Religie şi putere, Bucureşti, Nemira, 1996
  • Psihanodia, Bucureşti, Nemira, 1997
  • Păcatul împotriva spiritului. Scrieri politice, Bucureşti, Nemira, 1999
  • Studii româneşti I. Fantasmele nihilismului. Secretul Doctorului Eliade, Bucureşti, Nemira, 2000
  • Jocurile minţii. Istoria ideilor, teoria culturii, epistemologie, Iaşi, Polirom, 2002
  • Iocari serio. Ştiinţa şi arta în gîndirea Renaşterii, Iaşi, Polirom, 2003
  • Cult, magie, erezii. Articole din enciclopedii ale religiilor, Iaşi, Polirom, 2003

[edit] Co-author

  • With Mircea Eliade and H.S. Wiesner: Dictionnaire des Religions, Avec la collaboration de H.S. Wiesner. Paris, Plon, 1990, 1992(2); The Eliade Guide to World Religions, Harper, San Francisco, 1991 ; Handbuch der Religionen, Zürich und München, Artemis-Winkler-Verlag, 1991; Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch, 1995; Diccionario de las religiones Barcelona, Paidos Orientalia, 1993; Dicţionarul religiilor, Bucureşti, Humanitas, 1993, 1996(2)
  • The Encyclopedia of Religion, Collier Macmillan, New York, 1987
  • The HarperCollins Concise Guide to World Religions, Harper, San Francisco, 2000

[edit] Fiction

  • La collezione di smeraldi. Racconti, Milano, Jaca Book, 1989
  • Hesperus, Bucureşti, Univers, 1992; Bucureşti, Nemira, 1998(2); Iaşi, Polirom, 2003(3)
  • Pergamentul diafan. Povestiri, Bucureşti, Nemira, 1994
  • Pergamentul diafan. Ultimele povestiri, Bucureşti, Nemira, 1996(2); Iaşi, Polirom, 2002(3)
  • Arta fugii. Povestiri, Iaşi, Polirom, 2002
  • Jocul de smarald, Iaşi, Polirom, 2005

[edit] Other

  • Dialoguri întrerupte. Corespondenţa Mircea Eliade - Ioan Petru Culianu, Iaşi, Polirom, 2004

[edit] Works about Culianu

A biography and an analysis of his death was published by Ted Anton under the title Eros, Magic, and the Death of Professor Culianu (alluding to Culianu's most influential work, Eros and Magic in the Renaissance). See also: Elemire Zolla, Ioan Petru Culianu, Alberto Tallone Editore, 1994; Umberto Eco, Murder in Chicago, in The New York Review of Books, April 10, 1997; Sorin Antohi (ed.), Religion, Fiction, and History. Essays in Memory of Ioan Petru Culianu, Volumes I-II, Bucharest, Nemira, 2001; Sorin Antohi (coordinator), Ioan Petru Culianu. Omul şi opera, Iaşi, Polirom, 2003; Matei Calinescu, Despre Ioan Petru Culianu si Mircea Eliade. Amintiri, lecturi, reflectii, Iasi, Polirom, 2002, 2005(2); and Andrei Oişteanu, Religie, politică şi mit. Texte despre Mircea Eliade şi Ioan Petru Culianu, Polirom, Iaşi, 2007.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Anton, Ted. "The Killing of Professor Culianu", in Lingua Franca, Volume 2, No. 6 - September/October 1992
  2. ^ Antohi; Savin; Tismăneanu, "Cei pe care..."
  3. ^ Tismăneanu, in Anton

[edit] References

[edit] External links