FAITH AND MEDIA By Catherine Elvy, Staff Writer
GOD AND GAMING Expert: There Is ‘Potential for Spiritual Enrichment’
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Nearly 90 percent of college students engage in gaming, PRINCETON whether casually on a cell phone or intensely online, and such gaming can present spiritual opportunities. That was one of the key points from Craig Detweiler when the Pepperdine University scholar and author spoke recently at Princeton University on the wide-ranging impact of video games and the entertainment arena. Rather than viewing such activities as irreligious or even irreverent, Detweiler encouraged students to incorporate God into their leisure breaks. “Given the sheer volume of time invested in gaming, I wanted to challenge students not to see that as time away from God, but as an activity that could include God and connect to their deepest spiritual longings,” he said. Detweiler is the editor of Halos and Avatars: Playing Video Games with God, a collection of essays that include theological themes of some games. Topics include video games as a storytelling medium and the theological implications of violent or apocalyptic games such as Halo 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Resident Evil. Manna Christian Fellowship (www. princeton.edu/manna), along with the SmashCraft Heroes gaming club, sponsored Detweiler’s appearance on April 9 in Forbes College. He also lectured later that evening in Murray-Dodge Hall on the role of theology in film. Both video games and cinematic productions offer the potential for theological and personal enrichment, said Detweiler, a frequent cultural commentator. “What I did was help them understand why they love the things they love and tell them to reflect theologically – to look closely at the music, games, and TVs that surround them,” he said. “We were affirming common grace and God’s ability to speak through anything.” Detweiler noted that both gaming and movie viewing can involve fellowship. “Many people think of gaming as passive, but it is remarkably communal and active,”
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he said. “I wanted them to think in terms of fellowship within the gaming space.” He added: “Even in film, most popular cinematic sagas demonstrate that nobody can make the journey alone. You literally need a fellowship around the ring.” Likewise, for students who have struggled with addiction to video games, a spiritual component is critical for future participation. Detweiler recommends “inviting God into the process, asking for spiritual discernment on when enough is enough.” As for Detweiler, the father of Scholar Craig Detweiler encouraged students two said he is being reintroduced to incorporate God into their leisure breaks to gaming through his children, during a lecture on the entertainment arena ages 11 and 9. Halos and Avatars and video games. also includes a chapter from the Fuller Youth Institute on how parents and pastors can effectively told students the “best filmmakers are talk to teens about gaming. asking the ultimate questions that may be Ultimately, humans were created to enanswered in forgotten or overlooked secjoy recreational activities. “Before the fall, tions of the Bible.” there was a certain beauty and wonder to In addition to his core position as an the world,” Detweiler said. “The best associate professor of communications at games bring us back to that sheer joy.” Pepperdine, Detweiler is helping the uniDetweiler holds an undergraduate deversity to launch a master of fine arts progree in English, a master of fine arts, and gram in media production. He previously both a master of divinity and doctorate of served as the co-director of Reel Spiritutheology and culture from Fuller Theologality: An Institute for Moving Images at ical Seminary. In addition, Detweiler is a Fuller Theological Seminary. screenwriter, producer, and author. He “Pop culture has consistently moved co-wrote The Duke in 1999 for Buena me closer to God and connected with my Vista Home Entertainment and the roadheart-felt yearnings,” he said. “I’ve gone trip comedy Extreme Days in 2001 for on a theological quest to explain how God Providence Entertainment. Furthermore, can use profane things to spark sacred Detweiler co-wrote A Matrix of Meansearches. God has always used unlikely ings: Finding God in Pop Culture with people and unlikely means to wake up obBritish musician Barry Taylor in 2003. stinate people.” In 2008 he produced and directed the As for his time at Princeton, Detweiler award-winning documentary, Purple said he was struck by the commitment of State of Mind, which probes the tension students to the role of aestheticism. of so-called “blue” and “red” states in the “The students at Princeton were much United States. Detweiler also released more interested in aestheticism, the posInto the Dark: Seeing the Sacred in the sibilities of art, music, and drama to exTop Films of the 21st Century. The book press our deepest longings,” he said. “You probes 45 pop-culture films from social, have an entire generation of Christians cultural, and theological perspectives. who are being prepared to enter into the During his visit to Princeton, Detweiler marketplace of ideas.” ■