Gaming and the Divine

This book formulates a new theological approach to the study of religion in gaming. Video games have become one of the most important cultural artifacts of modern society, both as mediators of cultural, social, and religious values and in terms of commercial success. This has led to a significant increase in the critical analysis of this relatively new medium, but theology as an academic discipline is noticeably behind the other humanities on this subject. The book first covers the fundamentals of cultural theology and video games. It then moves on to set out a Christian systematic theology of gaming, focusing on creational theology, Christology, anthropology, evil, moral theology, and thanatology. Each chapter introduces case studies from video games connected to the specific theme. In contrast to many studies which focus on online multiplayer games, the examples considered are largely single player games with distinct narratives and 'end of game' moments. The book concludes by synthesizing these themes into a new theology of video games. This study addresses a significant aspect of contemporary society that has yet to be discussed in any depth by theologians. It is, therefore, a fantastic resource for any scholar engaging with the religious aspects of digital and popular culture.

Frank G. Bosman is a senior researcher at Tilburg Cobbenhagen Center, Tilburg University, the Netherlands. He is currently involved in multiple research projects concerning cultural theology and video games. He published various articles on theology and gaming in journals, such as Games and Culture, Gamenvironments, and Online, Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet, and in academic series, such as Jewish Christian Perspectives, and Studies in Theology and Religion.

Introduction 1 Fundamentals I: A theology of culture 2 Fundamentals II: A study of games 3 Theomorphism: Creational theology 4 Christophorism: Christology 5 Homo roboticus: Theological anthropology 6 Kyrie eleison: Theodicy and the problem of evil 7 The wicked problem of being alive: Ethics 8 Game over: Thanatology 9 God's delusion: Religion critique in video games; Conclusions: A systematic theology of video games