Ep. 05: Imagining Religion, Play, and Education with Dr. Gregory Grieve

Dr. Gregory Grieve visits with JD and Kyle this week to discuss the intersections of religion, play, and education (as well as the recent publication of his new book on Buddhism and Second Life). Grieve is a Professor and Head of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where he researches, teaches, and creates at the intersection of Asian religions and popular culture. He specializes in digital religion, particularly the emerging field of religion and video games, and his current research uses video games to explore the category of evil in contemporary life. He's also an innovative teacher, the recipient of the 2016 Excellence in Teaching Award, who incorporates games (like Dungeons & Dragons and Skyrim) to create memorable and playful classroom experiences. Grieve works in the space between communication studies and religious studies, the secular study of religious phenomena that emphasizes critical, culturally and historically based cross-cultural analysis. Religious studies is anthropological and not theological, and in true anthropologist fashion, Grieve uses games as a way of asking questions to better understand what it means to be human.

Stuff we mentioned...
Zen Buddhism
Silence
Religious Studies
Second Life
Nepal
Far Cry 4
Dungeons & Dragons
Johan Huzinga and the "Magic Circle"
Hannah Arendt and the "Banality of Evil"

JD (The Broad)
Website: GamingBroadly.com
Twitter: @JayDeeCepticon
Instagram: @JayDeeCepticon

Kyle (The Cast)
Website: KyleArmstrong.com
Twitter: @kyl_armstrong
Instagram: @kyl_armstrong
Youtube: Bounce House

Gregory Grieve, PhD (The Guest)
Website: gpgrieve.org
Book: Cyber Zen: Imagining Authentic Buddhist Identity, Community, and Practices in the Virtual World of Second Life

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