Critique with Limits—The Construction of American Religion in BioShock: Infinite
Journal Title: Religions - Year 2018, Vol 9, Issue 5
Abstract
Released in 2013, BioShock: Infinite is a blockbuster first-person shooter which explores topics of American nationalism and religion. This article examines how religion is represented within the game and how motifs from American religious history are used to construct its game world. After an overview of the game’s production process and a literature review, several specific religious and historical motifs are discussed. Through a dissection of the aesthetic and narrative dimensions of the game, the article analyzes elements of religious history from which the developers of Infinite drew their inspiration, such as the biblical motif of Exodus or the still-popular concept of millennialism. The analysis shows how the game uses familiar but simultaneously transformed American imagery, such as a religiously legitimated American Exceptionalism in which George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin are worshiped as saintly figures. Infinite plays with popular notions of evangelical religion, mixed with themes related to so-called dangerous cults and sects. In this construction, Infinite strangely vacillates between a biting liberal caricature of religiously fueled nationalism and a nod to widespread moderate mainstream values in which unusual religious movements are negatively portrayed. The article argues that a critique of a mainstream religious movement such as evangelical Christianity is not possible for a multi-billion-dollar industry which is wary of critical topics that may potentially estrange its broad consumer base. In such instances, critique can only be applied to forms of religion that are already viewed as strange by the popular discourse.
Authors and Affiliations
Jan Wysocki
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP26012
- DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/rel9050150
- Views 302
- Downloads 13
Spiritual and Religious Issues in the Aftermath of Suicide
Spirituality and religion have only been marginally investigated in the experiences of the bereaved by suicide (or survivors of suicide). Aim: This article directly addresses two questions: In what way was spirituality...
Sin and Addiction: Conceptual Enemies or Fellow Travelers?
The addiction recovery metaphor of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and the sin/salvation metaphor of Protestant heritage have a lot more in common than people realize. On the surface, of course, it seems that the addiction r...
Reframing Catholic Ethics: Is the Person an Integral and Adequate Starting Point?
Joseph Selling rightly defines human intentions and motivations as part of human nature and an important determinant of the morality of personal actions. The thesis of this paper is that Selling’s view of agency, as fo...
Mind-Body Practices in Integrative Medicine
Mind-Body practices have become increasingly popular as components of psychotherapeutic and behavior medicine interventions. They comprise an array of different methods and techniques that use some sort of mental-behav...
The New Internationalists: World Vision and the Revival of American Evangelical Humanitarianism, 1950–2010
International relief and development agencies consistently rank among the largest evangelical organizations, and in recent decades, they have gained increased exposure and influence within the greater humanitarian comm...