Hunter of Themes The Interplay of Word and Thing in the Works of

While the academic study of religion in the former Soviet Union had to contend with an official ideology of scientific atheism, such study in the West – particularly in the United States – was being (re)invented in the 1960s, during the very midst of the Cold War. The twenty-one contributions to this volume – by scholars from North America, Europe, Russia, and eastern Europe – examine the ideological and theological influences on the academic study of religion during the period from 1945 to 1989 and thus raise the question of whether an academic study of religion (Religionswissenschaft) might be defined in ways that avoid the extremes of both ideology and theology.

The Editors: Iva Doležalová is Assistant Professor of Religion at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. She deals with theory of myth and ritual and the history of religions, especially early Christianity. In addition to articles in professional journals, she has edited the volume Religions in Contact (1996) with B. Horyna and D. Papoušek.
Luther H. Martin is Professor of Religion and former Chair of the department at the University of Vermont. He is the author of Hellenistic Religions (1987) and of numerous articles on that subject. In addition, he writes on theory and method in the study of religion and has edited several volumes in this area.
Dalibor Papoušek is Assistant Professor of Religion and Head of the Institute for the Study of Religions at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. He focuses on the comparative study of ancient religions, especially during the Hellenistic period. In addition to articles in professional journals, he edited the volumes The Bible in Cultural Contact (1994) with H. Pavlincová and Religions in Contact (1996) with I. Doležalová and B. Horyna.