Religion Dispatches
Playing Gods, a new board game making headlines, is more than just a playful riff on religion. If we want to understand religions, we have to understand their game-like qualities, and that religion might, at the heart of it all, be a game. Which does not make it trivial.
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The fantasy realms of online gaming become even more surreal when religion enters the scene; imagine Batman going on pilgrimage to Mecca, or a virtual crucifixion, or massive Bibles, raining from the sky.
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The main difference between the enactment of the heroic archetype in myth and in popular culture is our contemporary squeamishness about the homoerotic vibe that usually hums just beneath the surface of the drama. We try to banish that gayness, or at least keep it at bay, but the pesky thing about archetypes is that they’re not very easily controlled.
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Religious politics in America have been dominated by discourses of fear, violence and triumphalism in recent decades. It may be that after this election, although warnings of doom will issue forth as loudly as ever, other conversations about religion and social change may resound as well.
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This presidential election has a symbolic sub-plot in which ancient archetypes vie for the American voter’s soul…
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McCain’s choice of Palin and her veiled suggestion that Obama’s faith-based work might not represent a correct interpretation of either politics or theology are symbolic messages aimed at a specific religious constituency…
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