More Than Belief

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.