Andreas’s review of Halos and Avatars: Playing Video Games with God > Likes and Comments
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I absolutely agree, Andreas. Quite a time capsule. At the time, there was close to nothing published in the theology and video games space. Or at least, nothing that had been gathered into book length studies. In fact, the most frequent question I got about my first book on theology and pop culture, A Matrix of Meanings (2003), was why we didn't include a chapter on video games. My co-author, Barry Taylor and I, would have included it if we felt worthy of taking that on. But my video game roots which reach back to Pong and Atari games, made me definitely not the one to take on such a project. And yet, years pass and still I don't see anything in the marketplace, responding to my students' questions. I decided something was better than nothing. At least, subsequent gamers and aspiring scholars could point their professors to Halos and Avatars and say, "See, it is a worthy academic subject and it deserves book length treatment and reflection." And of course, those books written by native gamers, closer to the subject, would surpass our nascent effort. That's the hope and the goal! Start a conversation, give people something to push against, and move the entire field forward. So I hope you're working on your essays and future books through J-Popcon, Andreas!
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Craig
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Aug 06, 2026 12:01PM
I absolutely agree, Andreas. Quite a time capsule. At the time, there was close to nothing published in the theology and video games space. Or at least, nothing that had been gathered into book length studies. In fact, the most frequent question I got about my first book on theology and pop culture, A Matrix of Meanings (2003), was why we didn't include a chapter on video games. My co-author, Barry Taylor and I, would have included it if we felt worthy of taking that on. But my video game roots which reach back to Pong and Atari games, made me definitely not the one to take on such a project. And yet, years pass and still I don't see anything in the marketplace, responding to my students' questions. I decided something was better than nothing. At least, subsequent gamers and aspiring scholars could point their professors to Halos and Avatars and say, "See, it is a worthy academic subject and it deserves book length treatment and reflection." And of course, those books written by native gamers, closer to the subject, would surpass our nascent effort. That's the hope and the goal! Start a conversation, give people something to push against, and move the entire field forward. So I hope you're working on your essays and future books through J-Popcon, Andreas!
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