Prospects for the Convergence of Religious and Gaming Activities in the Post-Secular Era

Abstract

The article explores the relationship between religion and play as two types of activity. The relevance of this comparison is dictated by the fact that a playful attitude to religion is fraught with conflict situations, since under certain conditions it borders on sacrilege, "insulting the feelings of believers". The author of the article proceeds from the fact that in order to clarify the boundaries and areas of intersection of religion and the game, it is advisable to clarify the concept of religion. The "classical" concept of religion, as shown by a whole series of religious studies and historical studies, is essentially Christian-centered, therefore, in order to enter a broader subject field, it requires revision. An appeal to anthropology and the history of religion shows that religious practices do not exclude, in principle, a gaming relationship. Moreover, in some historically and anthropologically fixed religions, the game is an integral part of the relationship to the superhuman world of gods and spirits. Even in the Christian tradition, remnants of the game component of religious practices remain, for example, in the form of carnivals. The author comes to the conclusion that the separation of religion from the game occurs only in Modern times, when the very concept of religion becomes clearer, and religion in scientific, political and legal discourse is separated from other activities (science, politics, art, economics, etc.). Therefore, paradoxical as it may seem at first glance, the separation of the game and religion is a side effect of secularization. The postsecular situation allows for the convergence of religion and games in a variety of forms: in the cultural and historical reconstruction of "neo-paganism", in the parody practices of "Pastafarianism", in the form of cosplay "Jedi", etc. The blurring of the boundary between religion and play in modern culture is facilitated by aesthetic practices that cultivate the so-called "post-irony" is a special communicative state in which participants are not able to accurately determine the pragmatic status of messages sent and received, and it is this discrepancy in interpretations that generates conflict situations, the theoretical understanding of which is devoted to the article.