e-rhizome, 2021 (vol. 3), issue 1
The Deep History of the Scientific Study of Religious Thought and Behaviour
Donald Wiebe
e-rhizome 2021, 3(1):1-20 | DOI: 10.5507/rh.2021.001 
This article provides a brief overview of the literature on transitions in modes of thought in the evolutionary development of our non-human and pre-historic human forebears. I will argue that this evolutionary history can account for the cognitive foundations underlying modern scientific modes of thought-dedicated to achieving 'disinterested' knowledge for its own sake-although not the actual historical emergence of the sciences. Essential to this task is understanding the continuities and discontinuities between human thought and that of our primate ancestors-the transitions in the cognitive capacities required for dealing with the physical environment-and...
The Nineteenth-Century Romance with "Mysteries": Literary Detectives and Historians of Religion
Luther H. Martin
e-rhizome 2021, 3(1):21-45 | DOI: 10.5507/rh.2021.002
Unlike the classical sources, nineteenth-century historians of religion characterized certain Hellenistic initiatory cults as "Mystery Religions." This was also the century in which the literary genre of mysteries (i.e., detective stories) developed (e.g., E. A. Poe). Was the nineteenth-century development of literary mysteries and the contemporaneous characterization of some Hellenistic initiatory practices by historians of religion also as "mysteries," especially, those characterized by R. Reitzenstein as "reading mysteries" (Lesemysterien), coincidental? I suggest that mystery novels may be read for insights into the historical and/or cultural...
Owning 'Myth': Conceptual Considerations
Ivan Strenski
e-rhizome 2021, 3(1):46-55 | DOI: 10.5507/rh.2021.003
Conceptual critique of the concept of myth should be a priority for anyone using the word in scholarship. A critical attitude to "myth," first, consists in becoming aware that the term trades on the Greek, "mythos." Second, a critical approach recognizes the great range of uses of the term, from its hypothesized, upper-case form-"Myth"- to a variety of less exalted uses in lower case-"myth" or "myths." No common referent necessarily exists of the diverse uses of these terms. Each use will tend to have its own rationale for faithfully representing how one should use the term. After one submits a given use of "myth" to critical chastening, the term can...
Homelessness: Case Studies from Pilsen
Jan Váně
e-rhizome 2021, 3(1):56-65 | DOI: 10.5507/rh.2021.004
The phenomenon of homelessness is affecting an ever larger number of municipalities in the Czech Republic, and it seems to be a structural problem that can hardly be solved by directive approaches and proclamatory and spectacular gestures during political campaigns. The text above informs about a publication that will be published at the beginning of 2021. This monograph combines two formats of approach to the research. Applied research predominates over basic research. Their common subject of interest is the issue of homelessness, which is associated with a specific place, namely the city of Pilsen.
The elaboration of the volume was made available thanks to the financial support granted by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic in 2020 within the framework of the Institutional Development Plan of the Faculty of Arts of the Palacký University Olomouc.