More Than Belief: A Materialist Theory of Religion - Paperback

by Manuel A. Vasquez (Author)

This book challenges the traditional idea that religions can be understood primarily as texts to be interpreted, decoded, or translated. In More Than Belief, Manuel A. Vásquez argues for a new way of studying religions, one that sees them as dynamic material and historical expressions of the practices of embodied individuals who are embedded in social fields and ecological networks. He sketches the outlines of this approach through a focus on body, practices, and space. In order to highlight the centrality of these dimensions of religious experience and performance, Vásquez recovers materialist currents within religious studies that have been consistently ignored or denigrated. Drawing on state-of-the-art work in fields as diverse as anthropology, sociology, philosophy, critical theory, environmental studies, cognitive psychology, and the neurosciences, Vásquez offers a groundbreaking new way of looking at religion.

Author Biography

Manuel A. Vásquez teaches in the Department of Religion at the University of Florida. He has published numerous articles, chapters, and books on religion in Latin America and among U.S. Latinos. His research currently focuses on the intersection between religion and globalization, particular on the dynamics of transnational religious networks and flows across the Americas.