Peaceful Expressions
Kushiel's Beloved and St. Bernadette's: Religious Practice in Two Online Role-play Communities View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jean-Paul Lafayette DuQuette
Live action role-play (LARP) communities have been active since the 1970s, an offshoot of table-top role-playing games (RPGs) like Dungeons & Dragons. LARPers differentiated themselves from pen and paper RPG fans in that they embody their play more dramatically, wearing costumes and following rules that integrate elements of improvisational theater. Enter Linden Lab’s avatar-based virtual world Second Life in 2003, which gave unprecedented freedom and flexibility for its "residents", providing free design tools to produce immersive role-play communities. Second Life groups have accordingly taken online, avatar-based LARPing in intriguing directions, even building communities that integrate role-play with fan fiction, self-help, spirituality and more traditional offline religious practice. However, it is unclear what impact the use of avatars as fictional personae may have on virtual world spirituality; it appears that one’s relationship with one’s avatar and one’s role-play ethos may be key. This paper introduces two virtual LARP communities in Second Life. The first is The Night Court, a role-play community based on the novels of Jacqueline Carey, that mixes new age ritual, group therapy and erotic role-play with out-of-character (OOC) socializing. The second is Saint Bernadette Church, a Catholic community that offers in-character church services and Bible study events for family role-players, including adults role-playing as children. Through comparison of these disparate groups, the paper underlines the different ways in which religion and role-play can overlap within virtual world LARPing communities. The de facto similarities between suspension of disbelief in role-play and belief in spiritual practice is also explored.
Featured Shmita Rebalance: Lessons in Rest and Sustainability from Indigenous Judaism’s Sabbatical Practice
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session David Krantz
Beginning as the ancient Israelites thousands of years ago, the Jewish people were mostly farmers and shepherds practicing sustainable development according to the edicts of the Torah, the Hebrew Bible. Over about two millennia of exile, however, Jews were unable to practice their land-based traditions tied to their holy land. But the dawn of modern-day Zionism in the mid-to-late 19th century and the subsequent return of Jews to their homeland in what is now Israel has allowed Jews to revive the sustainable-development practices of indigenous Judaism. This paper explores shmita, the biblical sabbatical year at the heart of Judaism’s sustainable-development ethic, showing that today’s so-called modern innovations — such as fallowing, polyculture and rewilding — are effectively incarnations of millennia-old agricultural practices of rest built into indigenous Judaism that rebalances the relationship between humanity and the Earth, demonstrating a utilitarian value that complements the intrinsic value of preserving ancient traditions. As humanity seeks climate-adaptation strategies, indigenous Judaism offers the restful practice of shmita.
The Challenge of Secularism to Religion: A South African Christian Perspective View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Pieter Verster
Secularism worldwide poses great challenges to religion. It seems the gates are open to reject religion. The most important challenge comes from some scientists who reject a religious understanding of the world. Evolution is regarded as a proven scientific explanation of the present world. Furthermore, religious books such as the bible are rejected because of the so-called discrepancies and evil descriptions, even of God. How should religions react to these challenges? The purpose of this paper is to explain the main implications of secularism. In South Africa, the religious beliefs of many are rejected. Authors of novels, many influential people and even some theologians who turned away from faith, proclaim that secularism should be embraced. The purpose is to engage these views and explain how religions should react. The method followed in this paper is to present via literature study the main views of secularism, also from novelists and ex-theologians and to engage it from a literature study of exponents who, mostly from a Christian viewpoint, discuss the response to these views. Evaluation of ideas and views are then also presented. The implications are that the purpose of religious beliefs are again clarified and that the value of faith in the present world of secularism is established.
The Otherworldly-secular Conflict and Faith-Based Housing: Menzil Community in Turkey View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Abu Bakarr Bah, Osman Aydogan
In Turkey, religion and secularism have informed long contested social and political issues, which has led to the emergence of pockets of secluded conservative religious communities, such as the Menzil Community. An interesting aspect of such communities is their social and settlement structure, which can examined through the forms of housing and secluded communities that they have built in urban areas. Interestingly, the demand for religious-based settlements and housing in Turkey has increased in recent years. This increase is closely related to both historical and contemporary phenomena and events. Today, with the establishment of a government by a ruling group with a positive view of religion and the growing religious middle class, the number of these unique spatial settlements has increased and these spaces have gained a more modern appearance. One of these notable spatial settlements is the Menzil Community settlement in southeastern Turkey. This study focuses on the founding mission of the Menzil village as a homogeneous religiously based settlement through specific requirements, facilities and practices, and the functional differentiation experienced with growth, institutionalization and rationalization. This study explains the religious-homogeneous spatial settlement and otherworldly-secular changes through in-depth interviews with the members of the Menzil group, who, despite their resistance, show unique signs of worldliness/secularization, and the data to be obtained through their activities. A critical question in this study is how secluded faith based urban settlement navigate their otherworldly ethos with the pressures of secularity associated with urban spaces.
