Automatic Religion: Nearhuman Agents of Brazil and France

by Paul Christopher Johnson

Book Overview

What distinguishes humans from nonhumans? Two common answers--free will and religion--are in some ways fundamentally opposed. Whereas free will enjoys a central place in our ideas of spontaneity, authorship, and deliberation, religious practices seem to involve a suspension of or relief from the exercise of our will. What, then, is agency, and why has it occupied such a central place in theories of the human?

Automatic Religion explores...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 022674969X
• ISBN13: 9780226749693
• Release Date: December 2020
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"