Julius Bautista, ed.

The Spirit of Things: Materiality and Religious Diversity in Southeast Asia
Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 2012

The Spirit of Things explores religious materiality in a region marked by shifting boundaries, multiple beliefs, and trends toward religious exclusivism. While most studies of religion in Southeast Asia focus on doctrines or governmental policy, contributors to this volume recognize that religious "things"—statues, talismans, garments, even sacred automobiles—are crucial to worship, and that they have a broad impact on social cohesion.

Reviewers’ comments:
“The Spirit of Things, Materiality and Religious Diversity in Southeast Asia is an ethnographically rich and colorful collection of readings on the religious and cultural diversity of Southeast Asia. Each of the contributors takes a bottom up approach to the study of religion as an aspect of culture that demonstrates how religion plays a formative role in crafting local politics and ideas about the tangible relationship between the spiritual and material world.” (Southeast Asia Research, 23(1): 145-145(1)

“This might be the greatest strength of this collection: the chapters enhance each other and make sense when read together. This volume is more than the sum of its parts… Instead of just collecting chapters loosely connected under a general rubric, Bautista and Anthony Reid, who he co-wrote the introduction with, have brought together a group of scholars to tackle a related set of problems, to speak to each other and respond to each other, with strong editorial control over the unity of the work.” (Pacific Affairs, 86 (4): 943-945)

“In short, this essay collection is timely and full of insightful details. It should belong to the shelves of anyone interested in Southeast Asian religions, the study of religious material culture, and the spiritualization of modern world.” (Southeast Asian Studies 3(1): 236-238)