e-rhizome, 2020 (vol. 2), issue 2
Even New Religious Movements Have Legacies
Eileen Barker
e-rhizome 2020, 2(2):65-80 | DOI: 10.5507/rh.2020.005 
Hundreds of thousands of new religious movements (NRMs) have made an appearance throughout the world since time immemorial. The majority of them have gathered only a small following for a generation or two, but then they are more likely than not to die out and be forgotten. Many of them do manage, however, to leave a legacy that makes its mark on the wider society, which often forgets their origin. This paper looks at some of those legacies in an attempt to indicate the broad range of innovations that have emanated from some of the more recent religious manifestations during their early years.
Religious Literacy and Our Pre-Critical Past
Russell T. McCutcheon
e-rhizome 2020, 2(2):81-91 | DOI: 10.5507/rh.2020.006
Using the recent emphasis on teaching religious literacy as an example, the paper argues that, despite seeming advances over the past few generations, the academic study of religion continues to employ problematic methods and terminology, indicative of unresolved theoretical issues that remain at the heart of this scholarly exercise.
On the Periphery in Two Ways: the Sexuality of 'Highly Religious' Protestant Singles in between a Secular Society and Their Religious Context
Tobias Künkler
e-rhizome 2020, 2(2):92-110 | DOI: 10.5507/rh.2020.007
This paper is based on specific interpretation of the results from a triangulated, empirical study on Protestant and mostly 'highly religious' singles. It demonstrates that 'highly religious' Protestant singles in Germany are on the periphery in two ways. Firstly, they are 'highly religious' individuals in a secular society and secondly, they are singles in a couple society. Furthermore, they are a minority in the context of their 'highly religious' groups not only in terms of numbers, but also in terms of deviation from the conservative norms of family and partnership. This double deviation is most evident in the area of sexuality - hence the focus...
The Phenomenon of Believing without Belonging among Slovak Youth (What does a youth who does not identify with any religion believe in?)
Ondrej ©tefaòak
e-rhizome 2020, 2(2):111-123 | DOI: 10.5507/rh.2020.008
In various societies, a certain percentage of people do not identify with any church or religious group. In Slovakia, according to the last census, it is about 15.0%. P. M. Zulehner argues that attempts are being made to portray this type of people as 'unbelievers', but some sociologists might argue about what 'unbelief' actually means, as it is defined only in the categories of rejection of the official religious organizations. The type of 'unbelievers' refers to people who do not accept the official models of religiosity and who create a new one - their own interpretations of life and the world. In the outlined context, the presented sociological...
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.