More than belief : a materialist theory of religion /

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. Vasquez argues for a new way of studying religions, one that sees them as dynamic material and historical expressions of the practic...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Vásquez, Manuel A.
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2011.
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Summary: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. Vasquez 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, Vsquez 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, Vasquez offers a groundbreaking new way of looking at religion.
Physical Description:382 pages ; 25 cm
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:9780195188530
0195188535
9780195188547
0195188543