Thinking Interrupted / Comprehending Culianu’s Model, from Gnosis to Constructal Law

Ioan Petru Culianu (1950-1991), is well known as a specialist in Gnosticism, early Christianity, and the Renaissance. But his interest exceeded Religious Studies or History of Ideas, and entered into other scientific theories, such as Mandelbrot’s theory of fractals. Culianu was in search of a model that could explain not only Religion, but Science and Philosophy as well. He did not have time to finish explaining his intuitions, which nonetheless prove to be so appealing, nor to encounter a new theory of Physics, the Constructal law. Had he lived longer, the Constructal law would have offered him what he was looking for. This book – the result of eighteen months post-doctoral studies – analyses the oeuvre of Ioan Petru Culianu towards a better understanding of his theory. It also offers, in the last chapter, an investigation of the Constructal law and its application in Religious Studies.

Dorin David has a BA and a MA in Philosophy, and a PhD in Literature and Cultural Studies (with a thesis on Mircea Eliade's oeuvre). He benefited from two fellowships in Religious Studies, the first one at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, and the second one at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He finished his post-doctoral research on the oeuvre of Ioan Petru Culianu at the Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania. The author is an expert in both Culianu's and his magister Mircea Eliade's works and philosophy. He published several studies and presented papers at international conferences on the thoughts and works of these two important scholars of the twentieth century. He is the author of the books: 1. 2015: Mircea Eliade. At the Edge of the Labyrinth: Correspondences between Scientific Oeuvre and Fantastic Prose[In Romanian in original: Mircea Eliade. La marginea labirintului: corespondente intre opera stiintifica si proza fantastica]. Bucharest: Eikon. 2. 2010: From Eliade to Culianu. [In Romanian in original: De la Eliade la Culianu]. Bucharest: Eikon.