Godwired : religion, ritual, and virtual reality / Rachel Wagner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wagner, Rachel.

Series:

Media, religion, and culture series.

Media, religion, and culture series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Virtual reality--Religious aspects.

Physical Description:

266 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2012.

Summary:

Godwired offers an engaging exploration of religious practice in the digital age. It considers how virtual experiences, like stories, games and rituals, are forms of world-building or cosmos construction that serve as a means of making sense of our own world. Such creative and interactive activity is, arguably, patently religious. This book examines: -- the nature of sacred space -- technology as a vehicle for sacred texts -- who we are when we go online -- how religious ritual works online -- whether it is possible to gather for worship in online space. Rachel Wagner suggests that whilst our engagement with virtual reality can be viewed as a form of religious activity, today 's virtual religion marks a radical departure from traditional religious practice it is ephemeral, transient, rapid, disposable, hyper-individualized, hybrid, and in an ongoing state of flux.

Contents:

Walkthrough

The stories we play: interactivity and religious narrative

The games we pray: what is this ritual-game-story thing?

The other right here: in search of the virtual sacred

Me, myself, and Ipod: hybrid, wired, and plural selves

God-mobs: virtually religious community

What you play is what you do?: procedural evil and videogame violence

Xbox apocalypse: video games, interactivity, and revelatory literature

Making belief: transmedia and the hunger for the real

Expansion pack.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [246]-262) and index.

ISBN:

9780415781442

0415781442

9780415781459

0415781450

9780203148075

020314807X

OCLC:

727702531

Publisher Number:

99946472327