Born in the year of the Fire Horse, Brent Plate has traveled the world seeking ways that people practice and/or fight against ancient traditions of religion. Convinced that religion has less to do with beliefs than with bodies, he has turned his attention to the ways people connect with physical objects through sense perception.
The things we humans see, hear, smell, taste, and touch are what give us our spiritual dimension.
Professor Plate has presented his research at museums, cultural centers, and universities across Asia, Europe, and North America. He is the author of four books and editor of nine other books. Dr. Plate is the President of the Association for Religion and Intellectual Life/Cross Currents, co-founder and managing editor of the academic journal Material Religion, and serves on the board of the Interfaith Coalition of Greater Utica, in upstate New York.