I have published books on a variety of subjects including Native Americans, Australian Aborigines, dancing, technology, religion, photography.
In 2021 my book The Proper Study of Religion: Building on Jonathan Z. Smith (Oxford) won a national book award.
Podcasts on The Proper Study of Religion
Religious Studied News podcast on “The Proper Study of Religion” including a transcript. Podcast also on YouTube: YT
“Aesthetic of Impossibles” ArtBook Series
Exploring and celebrating being human is an abiding passion. I especially honor as a distinctive human gift our capacity to hold together without resolution things declaring them to be the same, even identical, while knowing they are not the same at all. A metaphor is to understand one thing by equating it with another that we know it is not. Art, ritual, language, maps, play, and masks all equate things we know are not the same. Impossibles! More than an interesting quirk, I find these impossibles a distinctively human and quite common source of power and value. Relying on its Greek root “aesthetic” is not limited to concerns with beauty but rather suggests something more like “I feel, I sense, I perceive, I know.” A bodied feeling kind of knowing. Linking aesthetic with the notion of impossibles opens for consideration, exploration, and sheer wonder this human capability to feel, sense, perceive, and know in ways that defy the banal terms of reason alone. Each volume in the series explores in words and images an arena of this aesthetic of impossibles.
On Photography PDF
On Moving 8.6″x11″ (2022) format with photographs PDF.
On Moving 5.5″x8.5″ (2023) format. PDF
Books
Songs of Life: An Introduction to Navajo Religious Culture. Leiden: J.Brill, 1979
Sacred Words: A Study of Navajo Religion and Prayer. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Inc., 1981
Beyond “The Primitive:” The Religions of Nonliterate Peoples. World Religions Series, Robert Ellwood, Jr., editor. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1982
Native American Religions: An Introduction. Religious Life of Man Series, Frederick Streng, editor. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc., 1982, revised ed. 2004
Native American Traditions: Sources and Interpretations. Religious Life of Man Series, Frederick Streng, editor. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc., 1983
Mother Earth: An American Story. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987, paper 1991
Native American Religious Action: A Performance Approach to Religion. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1987
Dictionary of Native American Mythology with Irene Sullivan. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1992. Paperback edition by Oxford University Press, 1994
Storytracking: Texts, Stories, and Histories in Central Australia. Oxford University Press, 1998
Dancing Culture Religion. Lexington Books, 2012
Religion and Technology into the Future: From Adam to Tomorrow’s Eve. Lanham, MD: The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., 2018
Creative Encounters, Appreciating Difference: Perspectives and Strategies. Lanham, MD: The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., 2019
On Reflection: Vignettes & Images. Self-published in two-versions, 2019
The Proper Study of Religion: Building on Jonathan Z. Smith. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020
Looking Forward in the Rearview Mirror: Travel Journal Selections with Reflection. 2021
Travel Writing: The full Travel Journals 1993-’94 Australia, Bali, Java, Thailand, and Nepal; 1997 Ghana West Africa, 2021
On Photography. “Aesthetic of Impossibles ArtBook Series” no. 1. 2021
On Moving: A Biological & Philosophical Account of Human Distinctiveness, “Aesthetic of Impossibles ArtBook Series” no. 2, 2022. Reprinted in a 5.5″x8.5″ format, 2023.
Art Album 2023: Photos & Essays. 2023.
Reality Under Siege: Explorations of the Creative Roll of Difference. Two volumes. Vol One: The Charm of the Real. Vol Two: The Poetry is in the Difference. 2024.