Video Games Offer New View for Religious Studies
The study of religion is taking some students to the gaming lab at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, allowing them to simulate field work and actively engage with questions about mythological narratives, transformations, and more.
For 20 students enrolled in the first offering of Religious Studies 310 Religion and Gameworlds, the week starts with a classroom discussion of theory. Mid-week they head to the eXperience Point Lab in John C. Hodges Library, working in groups to play games and record observations at every point, as they would in ethnographic field work. In the next class they discuss their observations and analysis.
“To my knowledge, it’s the first course of its kind anywhere to approach the topic of religion and video games from both the side of how religion informs video game worlds, and also from the side of how the experience of playing video games can inform how we approach the study of religion,” said Associate Teaching Professor Michael Naparstek, who developed the course.
In one early assignment the students had to describe their ideal video game character. “The layers of depth in the responses was astounding,” Naparstek said. Later in the semester they will work in groups to build their own game world for others to analyze.
Popular video games—like many popular films before them—draw from the mythologies, cosmologies, unseen powers, and heroic narratives found across the world’s religious traditions,” he explained (See his discussion of the game Black Myth: Wukong on The Conversation).
Beyond that, video games offer an interactive experience in a unique way, something he realized while playing Super Mario Odyssey with his own children. In that game, Mario can take control of other characters and objects by tossing Cappy on them.
“A good video game blurs the line between the subjective human player and the objective digital player character, thus raising very interesting questions about who is actually doing what in the game,” Naparstek said. “When your player character levels up, gaining power, transforms into something else … who is actually experiencing the transformation?”
Super Mario Odyssey is one of the games students will play as they analyze agency and apotheosis, someone reaching divine status.
During a recent lab session on the theme of world building, the students pondered how religion plays a role in creating civilizations. Developing and spreading their own religions in the game Civilization VI, they explored what it means to win a religious victory in the game.
When the class explores god-making narratives, students will play games such as Refind Self.
Few of the students taking the class are majoring in religious studies, instead focusing on fields ranging from computer science to theatre. “Religion and macroeconomics are the two most powerful forces impacting peoples’ daily lives without folks necessarily recognizing how from day to day,” Naparstek observed.
“As much as the course is designed around video games, it really is about how the intellectual and analytical apparatus that the field of religious studies offers provides relevant insights into our contemporary world,” he said.
Starting in fall 2025, Religion and Gameworlds will count toward the Volunteer core curriculum requirement for Engage Inquiries.
To launch the course in spring 2025, Naparstek credits support from not only the Department of Religious Studies, but also the College of Arts and Sciences, the library, and the UT Teaching and Learning Institute. “Without all of those folks’ efforts, this would not have been possible,” he said.
By Amy Beth Miller