We present a geometric scalar theory of gravity. Our proposal will be
described using the "background field method" introduced by Gupta, Feynman and
others as a field theory formulation of general relativity. We analyze previous
criticisms against scalar gravity and show how the present proposal avoids
these difficulties. This concerns not only the theoretical complaints but also
those related to observations. In particular, we show that the widespread
belief of the conjecture that the source of scalar gravity must be the trace of
the energy-momentum tensor - which is one of the main difficulties to couple
gravity with electromagnetic phenomenon in previous models - does not apply to
our geometric scalar theory. Some consequences of the new scalar theory are
explored.Comment: We did some modifications which do not change the content of the tex
