In 1991 Ioan Culianu, a religion scholar with a specialty in European occult and esoterism, was murdered in a bathroom stall in the University of Chicago's Divinity School. Weeks prior, he suspected someone had been following him, so he gave a colleague a stack of papers for safekeeping.

The murder remains unsolved, but various theories have been put forth. It could have been the Romanian Securitate, since he was critical of them. Connections to drugs and satanic cults were also speculated. It could have been old fascist Romanian emigres, upset at his critiques and engagement to a Jewish woman.

The papers eventually came to the author of this book, Bruce Lincoln. According to him they were translations of newspaper articles that their shared mentor, Eliade had written in support of the Iron Guard in the 1930s. He claims he accidentally threw them out while cleaning his desk during his retirement, and this book is an attempt to rectify this loss for posterity.

The majority of the book is a retracing of Eliade's early support of the Iron Guard and a history of other scholars' attempts at disclosing this. Most agree that Eliade was not a "card carrying" member of the Iron Guard and that he provided no material support to the cause. However, there are a few articles that make his moral support explicit, and when confronted about it, Eliade denied writing it at all. Eliade died in 1986. Lincoln convincingly argues that Eliade did write these contentious articles and that Culianu, initially skeptical himself, was also coming to the same conclusion before his murder.

One leaves with the sense that while Eliade definitely wrote in support of the Iron Guard and Christian chauvinism, it was a sort of milqutoast cheerleading blended with mumbled criticism. Reprehensible, yes, but perhaps only marginally worse than Heidegger's Nazi ties.

The final chapter suggests the murder was done at the behest of Eliade's wife who feared that Culianu was going to publish translations of these articles and tarnish her husband's memory. Also, I think Lincoln's capping about losing those papers in a dumpster.

Secrets, Lies, and Consequences

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