Religion as Art

Steven Loza explores how the iconic aspects of religion transcend mere symbolism with a collection of essays that examine the arts and their relationship to religious belief in three cultural areas of the world: the Mexican mestizo belief in the Virgen de Guadalupe, the West African Yoruba religion's base in a divination system of orishas, and the Sufi sect of Islam's musical/textual practices of devotional ecstasy to God.

The essays included here were originally presented at the 2004 international conference "Towards a Theory for Religion as Art: Guadalupe, Orishas, and Sufi," organized by the Arts of the Americas Institute at the University of New Mexico. While they reflect the interdisciplinary design and dialogue of the conference, the essays also reveal that many of the arts are conceptualized cross-culturally, ranging from visual art and poetry to music and dance, and offer comparative studies of their relationships to society, politics, and culture in general.

Contributors to "Religion as Art":
Gregory A. Cajete, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Timothy Canova, Chapman University, Orange, California
Martinus Cawley, Guadalupe Trappist Abbey, Lafayette, Oregon
Francisco Crespo, University of California, Los Angeles
Lorena DA-az NAAez, Centro Nacional de InvestigaciA3n, DocumentaciA3n e InformaciA3n Musical, Mexico City
Akin Euba, University of Pittsburgh
Francisco Miranda GodA-nez, Colegio de MichoacAn, Mexico
Juan GA3mez-QuiAones, University of California, Los Angeles
Linda B. Hall, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Clarence Henry, University of Kansas
Ray HernAndez-DurAn, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Teresa Marrero, University of North Texas
Orlando Ricardo Menes, University of Notre Dame
Margaret Montoya, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Charles Moore, Long Beach State University, California
Luis A. Payan, University of Texas, El Paso
Stafford Poole, C.M., Los Angeles
A. J. Racy, University of California, Los Angeles
Joe Sando, Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico
Janice Schuetz, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Robert Stevenson, University of California, Los Angeles
Sylvia Tan, University of California, Los Angeles
Maria Williams, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque