This is Faith in Play #52: Pirates, for March 2022. We have yet another archetype character this month. I picked pirates for the category name because there is something romantic about them in the modern mind, but this broadly covers brigands, bandits, and similar scoundrels. When I put the question to my panel of experts, … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #51: Protectors, for February 2022. Last month we looked at another archetype character, exploring the positives and negatives of Mercenaries. In the discussion stimulated when I asked about the type, a confusion arose, bringing up a different type of fighter, exemplified by the legendary lone ronin of Japanese folklore, the … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #50: Mercenaries, for January 2022. Recently my attention was called to our article Faith and Gaming: Warriors, written about two decades ago, the first entry in our miniseries on Archetypes, looking at types of characters and how they reflect and challenge our faith. I remembered that I followed it with … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #49: Oh, Christmas, for December 2021. We all have images of Christmas with the angel choirs singing to the shepherds and the wise men bringing valuable presents to the baby. It is a time of joy, a time of peace, a time of happiness and celebration—and well it should be. … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #48: Advent, for November 2021. There was, decades ago, a gag in a comic strip (called Funky Winkerbean) in which two of the characters were walking down the street marveling at all the decorations, the lights and garlands and wreaths put up for Christmas, and then one of them says, … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #47: Magic In The Bible, for October 2021. In the interest of disclosure I am here commenting on a book by the title Magic In The Bible, by Ken Goudsward, published by Dimensionfold Publishing, who late last year put my recent book Why I Believe on the shelves. Goudsward is … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #46: Undo, for September 2021. I was folding laundry, and as I picked up a lab jacket I realized that one of the sleeves was inside out. I pushed my hand down a sleeve, grabbed the cuff, and reversed it—only to realize that now both sleeves were inside out, as … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #45: Special, for August 2021. A few decades ago when I was studying Paul’s letter to Philemon I realized that the prayer, and therefore the entire book, was about how God had placed special gifts within each of us, making us uniquely suited for His place for us. Not long … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #44: An Alignment Grid, for July 2021. I thought I had finished discussing alignment, as it appears in Original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons™. I had explained why it was the True Religion of characters in the game world, and described Goodness as beneficence, Wickedness or Evil as selfishness, Law as … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #43: Slavery, for June 2021. On September 16, 2019, then five-year-old Dulce Maria Alavez was apparently kidnapped from a playground in Bridgeton, New Jersey. Ongoing investigations have revealed nothing but a sketch of one unidentified person in the area. A seventy-five thousand dollar reward has been offered for her return. … [Read more…]