Born-Again Digital: Exploring Evangelical Video Game Worlds Vincent Gonzalez A dissertation ...

386 Pages·2014·10.24 MB·English

Born-Again Digital:
Exploring Evangelical Video Game Worlds

Vincent Gonzalez

A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Ph.D. in the Religious Studies
department in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Chapel Hill
2014

Approved by:

Yaakov Ariel

Jason Bivins

Jonathan Boyarin

David Morgan

Barry Saunders

Randall Styers
©2014
Vincent Gonzalez
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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ABSTRACT

Vincent Gonzalez: Born-Again Digital:
Exploring Evangelical Video Game Worlds
(Under the direction of Yaakov Ariel)

Evangelical Christians have been creating video games for over thirty years, outpacing
the efforts of all other religions. By the count that guides the present study, 773 games were
made for religious audiences through 2010, of which 474 identify their affiliation as only
“Christian,” or “biblical.” Like other artifacts of digital religion, these games allow us to see the
entanglement of people’s theological and technological universes. However, unlike many other
aspects of digital religion, religious video gaming’s novel artistic forms, cultural critiques, and
theological possibilities largely blossomed beneath notice. Evangelical video game culture, thus,
presents the creative production of a historically significant avant garde whose critical
perspective has been neglected outside its own community. In particular, Evangelical video
gaming transforms the concerns that connect it to other digital cultures – “violence,” for instance,
or “immersion” – by attending to the moral status of the player-in-play.
This study combines the methods of Religious Studies, Science and Technology Studies,
and Cultural Studies to show how the popular artifacts of digital religion can shed light upon
their cultural context. My initial frame orients Evangelical video games through broad theoretical
concerns and a series of cultural histories then focus our attention upon specific telling instances.
My introduction applies a relational ontology to establish a vocabulary for examining religious
video games in terms of the digital, religion, and play. Chapter two considers how groups learn
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to live with computers and details the specific stakes of digital religion for Evangelical Christians
in the context of “spiritual warfare.” Chapter three situates my catalog of religious games within
a detailed history of digital religion. Chapter four focuses on the place of Evangelicals in the
debates around video game “violence.” Chapter five then considers how those debates are visible
in seven Evangelical First-Person Shooter games. Chapter six provides a theoretical orientation
to the future of Evangelical gaming by considering the notion of “immersion” in games. Chapter
seven concludes by summarizing findings and offering suggestions for further research. Finally,
an appendix presents a catalog of religious games as a resource for ongoing research.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES …...................................................................................................................ix

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ….....................................................................................................ix

CHAPTER 1: THREE FUNDAMENTAL DYNAMICS:
DIGITAL, RELIGIOUS, AND PLAYFUL

Introduction .........................................................................................................................1

Concerning Dynamism........................................................................................................8

Where Does the Digital Begin?....….................................................................................12

Provisional Definition of Religion.....................................................................................19

Excursus on Play …...........................................................................................................28

Video Games as Mundane Software …………………………………………………….33

Conclusion …....................................................................................................................38

CHAPTER 2: BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND DEEP BLUE:
THE STAKES OF VIDEO GAMING FOR EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANITY

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………40

What is Evangelical Media? …………………………………………………………….43

The Human-Computer Interfaith ………………………………………………………..50

Video Game Critique and Spiritual Warfare ……………………………………………60

The Satanic Panic………………………………………………………………………...66

Spiritual Mapping as Historical Context ………………………………………………...71
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Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….75

CHAPTER 3: HOLY GHOST IN THE MACHINE:
A HISTORICAL SITUATION FOR EVANGELICAL VIDEO GAMING

Introduction ..……..........................................................................…...............................77

Thinking in Curves: Theoretical Grounds for a History of Digital Religion …................78

How to Count Religious Video Games ….........................................................................87

In the Beginning was the Word [1951-1982] ….................................................…..........96

The Birth of Digital Religious Entertainment [1982-1990] ..…........................................99

Technologies of Bricolage and Religious Gaming's First Bloom [1990-1998] …......... 105

New Playspaces and the First Great Acceleration [1998-2004] ….................................116

Apps, Profiles, and the Bounds of this Study [2004-2010] …........................................129

Conclusion ......................................................................................................................143

CHAPTER 4: SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES AND BACK AGAIN: EVANGELICAL
CHRISTIANS AND THE GAME-VIOLENCE DEBATES

Introduction......................................................................................…............................145

First-Person Shooters ......................................................................................................148

Presumption and Playership ............................................................................................152

Locating Violence............................................................................................................158

Evangelical and Worldly Histories of Game-Violence ..................................................163

Remembering Columbine ...............................................................................................173

Divine Violence and Sacred Play................................................................................... 181

Conclusion ......................................................................................................................186
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CHAPTER 5: TAKING THE KINGDOM BY FORCE: LIVING AND DYING IN THE
EVANGELICAL FIRST-PERSON SHOOTER

Introduction ….................................................................................................................189

The Demonic Archipelago …..........................................................................................194

The War in Heaven …......................................................................................................200

Saints of Virtue …............................................................................................................209

Catechumen and Ominous Horizons …...........................................................................213

Rev 7 …............................................................................................................................219

Eternal War: Shadows of Light …...................................................................................222

Afterward: Into the Rain ….............................................................................................224

Conclusion …..................................................................................................................232

CHAPTER 6: DIGITAL BAPTISTS AGAINST DIGITAL IMMERSION:
AN ESCHATOLOGY FOR EVANGELICAL VIDEO GAMING

Introduction ….................................................................................................................234

Journey to the Center of the Art.......................................................................................239

The Emergence of the Immersive …...............................................................................242

Evangelical Disruptions to Immersion …........................................................................246

Conclusion.......................................................................................................................255

CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION: THE NEW CREATION

Introduction......................................................................................................................258

Where to Go From Here ….............................................................................................263
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APPENDIX: Religious Video Games (1982 – 2010) ….............................................................267

WORKS CITED .........................................................................................................................345

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 - A Game Play Curve………………………..................................................................82

Figure 2 – Religious Video Games (1982 – 2010) …...................................................................88

Figure 3 – Evangelical First-Person Shooters …........................................................................ 199

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Illustration 1 – The Guard at the Gate …....................................................................................... 1

Illustration 2 – “Pick up yellow wings to get more Hope”............................................................22

Illustration 3 - Demon, Neutral, and Saint in Left Behind: Eternal Forces…...............................40

Illustration 4 – The Human-Computer …......................................................................................52

Illustration 5 – Spiritual Warfare in Timothy and Titus …………………………………………65

Illustration 6 – End Times Ministry in Computer Bible Games
and Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist...................................................................77

Illustration 7 – Devil World ….......................................................................................................92

Illustration 8 – Feeding Animals in Super 3D Noah's Ark …......................................................145

Illustration 9 – Constructing Doom's Realism …........................................................................170

Illustration 10 – Enemy Morphology in Quake and Eternal War: Shadows of Light..................189

Illustration 11 – Destroying Sacra on the Path of Fallen Power
and the Path of Divine Obedience……………………………………………...207

Illustration 12 – Firewall Defender ………………………………………………………….…234

Illustration 13 – A Designer of Immersive Games and His Audience ………………………...237

Illustration 14 – Caught in the Web ............................................................................................ 249

Illustration 15 – Game Saved…………………………………………………………………...258
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