Date of Award
6-1996
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Comparative Religion
First Advisor
Dr. H. Byron Earhart
Second Advisor
E. Thomas Lawson
Third Advisor
David Ede
Access Setting
Masters Thesis-Campus Only
Abstract
Mircea Eliade's theory of sacred mountains in religion as an axis-mundi is the focus of this thesis. Several scholars who have criticized Eliade's theory as being limited and inadequate were reviewed. Their analyses showed Eliade's theory to be significantly restrained and unfitted in several instances. This thesis then reviewed Eliade's theory of sacred mountains in religion as an axis-mundi. Given this theory, this paper tested his theory among case studies of the creation stories of three historically unrelated religious systems: the Navajo, Mayan, and early Japanese.
Testing Eliade's theory with the evidence taken from these creation stories sufficiently showed that Eliade's theory is restricted and deficient in the instances provided by the stories. The analysis of these stories also provided the opportunity to revisit the evidence and to understand it in a new way. The evidence was able to show that sacred mountains in religion can be better understood within the broader notion of religious orientation by a religious system to its physical environment.
Recommended Citation
Faryniarz, Timothy M. L., "Sacred Mountains in Religion" (1996). Masters Theses. 3664.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/3664