TY - JOUR T1 - Studying Religion in Digital Gaming: A Critical Review of an Emerging Field JF - Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet Y1 - 2014 A1 - Grieve, G. P A1 - Campbell, H KW - digital games KW - game studies KW - Implicit religion KW - Narrative KW - play KW - video games AB - This article provides an overview of the study of religion and gaming by outlining the dominant approaches, development and themes in this new interdisciplinary field of inquiry. It highlights dominant thematic and methodological approaches currently within the field of religion and digital games studies including the study of religiously-themed games, the role religion plays in mainstream games, and how gaming can be seen as a form of “implicit religion". This critical review is contextualized in relation to the studies presented in a forthcoming book, Playing with Religion in Digital Games, which maps key theoretical approaches and interpretive trends related to how different expressions of religion and religiosity are manifested in various gaming genres and narratives. We show that digital games are an important site of exploration into the intersection of religion and contemporary culture helping us understand what religion is, does, and means in a changing contemporary society. VL - 5 UR - https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/index.php/religions/article/view/12183 IS - 1 ER - TY - CHAP T1 - Digital Apocalypse: The Implicit Religiosity of the Millennium Bug Scare T2 - Religions of Modernity: Relocating the Sacred to the Self and the Digital Y1 - 2010 A1 - Karen Pärna A1 - Aupers, Stef A1 - Houtman, Dick KW - Implicit religion KW - millennium bug JF - Religions of Modernity: Relocating the Sacred to the Self and the Digital PB - Brill CY - Leiden ER - TY - THES T1 - Believing in the Net: Implicit Religion and the Internet Hype, 1994-2001 Y1 - 2010 A1 - Karen Pärna KW - Anomie KW - Disenchantment KW - Giving meaning KW - Hypes KW - ICT KW - Implicit religion KW - internet KW - Modernity KW - Sociology of religion KW - Technophilia AB - Starting with Weber’s disenchantment thesis, a sociological tradition has developed that associates modernity with a crisis of meaning. The de-mystification of our worldview and the decreasing influence of religious traditions in specific are seen as obstacles for making sense of human existence. But in fact, modern societies are full of meaning and they continue to be religious. This study shows that, in an implicit form, religion can be found everywhere in our culture. The Internet hype of the 1990s was a particularly effervescent example of implicit religiosity. The hopeful discourse about the Internet that typified this hype drew on religious ideas and language, and it inspired strong belief. This dissertation explores the appeal of the Internet as an object of faith and it looks at how it could serve as a source of meaning. PB - Leiden University Press CY - Leiden, the Netherlands VL - PhD UR - http://netage.org/2011/03/26/believing-in-the-net/ ER -