Changing Religious Worlds measures the nature and significance of Mircea Eliade's contribution to the understanding and academic study of religion in North America today. It includes the perspectives of the continent's leading experts on Eliade and his thought, both critical and supportive. It also includes previously unpublished fiction and journal entries from Eliade himself. The book ponders whether it is time to leave Eliade behind or whether we can yet learn from either his insights or his errors, and whether the changing world has left Eliade behind or whether it is finally catching up with him. Particular consideration is given to whether Eliade makes any lasting contribution to our ability to deal with the changing face of religion and the ability to "change over" into the religious world of the other and to see through the eyes of the other.

Contributors include Douglas Allen, Wendell Charles Beane, David Cave, Roger Corless, Norman Girardot, Alan Larsen, Russell McCutcheon, Tim Murphy, Carl Olson, William Paden, Rachela Permenter, Mac Linscott Ricketts, and Robert Segal.