Island Time in Lockdown: Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ Slow Culture and Its Shinto Source

This article argues that Animal Crossing: New Horizons embodies the culture of Slowness discovered by many during the covid-19 lockdown in 2020, and that its acclaim points to a future for Slowness in games and, perhaps, in lifestyle more generally. The title will be considered within the context of Radde-Antweiler et al.’s framework of gamevironments, which considers the cultural landscape of a given game based on its technical aspects and its reception among audiences. Through this, the Slowness in the game can be identified. It will subsequently be argued that this Slowness is the result of Shinto presence in the game, as the tradition is largely concerned with the natural environment and mindfulness, contrasting with the values promoted by capitalism and globalisation. Animal Crossing: New Horizons and its popularity point to a growing discontent with the status quo of ‘fast’ living.

Lifelong Spiritual Learning: Religious Older Adults Going Digital

This qualitative study sought to explore the role of online religious learning in alleviating distress and enhancing wellbeing in later life. Twenty-six religious Jewish individuals aged 70–96 were personally trained in their homes to use an experimental spiritual learning website. Their experiences were documented for six months via interviews, media ethnographies, and monthly follow-ups. Analysis identified the participants’ initial ambivalent attitudes towards online religious learning, which extended the discussion of cultural barriers to the integration of digital technologies for religious observance and the maintenance of communal boundaries. However, this research group’s experience highlighted the intellectual, social, and emotional benefits garnered by participation in online religious learning in later life. The findings indicate that this informal educational channel may supplement religious praxis and fill the lives of older religious adults with positive rewards and, thereby, improve their psychological and social wellbeing.

Constructions of Moral Values in Reader Comments of the Samantha Sex Robot Discourse in East African Newspapers

Although artificial intelligence (ai) has been touted as revolutionary, this technology has sparked ethical concerns, with man accused of attempting to create a ‘play God’ with it. While creators of sex robots have been hailed for reigniting sexual relationships, they have received flack in equal measure for their apparent moral absurdity. From a Christian values perspective, this study interrogates how the Samantha sex robot invention was framed in 129 online reader comments in two East African newspapers – The Standard and The Daily Monitor. Findings showed that comments fell under the value themes of ‘family bond’, ‘compromised conscience’, and ‘apocalypse’. While a few positioned sex robots as a panacea to domestic instability, the majority opinion viewed the robots as ‘destroyers’ of the God-ordained family unit and tools of dehumanizing women, and thus morally contradictory to Christian teachings. Justifying sex robots was considered to be ‘negotiating’ or ‘rationalizing’ with established Christian values and therefore ‘rebelling against God’. Man’s extremity with the creation and use of sex robots sparked predictions of a self-fulfilling prophecy of his extermination for inciting the wrath of God. The preservation of culture also underpinned the ethical evaluations of robots by some commenters.

How YouTube Mediations of Global Contemporary Congregational Songs Contribute to an Understanding of the Genre

Contemporary congregational songs (ccs) are a global genre of Christian worship, driven presently from Western production centres. Streaming media platforms, in particular YouTube, have become essential vehicles for disseminating these songs globally, as well as a way for fans to contribute to the popularity of songs through views, likes, comments, sharing, and uploading their own fan-created videos. While this activity has had some scholarly attention, it has not focussed on the varied forms these videos take and how they contribute to and nuance the definition of the genre. This article utilises the most sung songs data from recent Christian Copyright Licensing International reports across five regions to establish the 32 most sung ccs globally. A media studies analysis is then conducted, with contributions from musicology and theology, of the most viewed versions of those ccs on YouTube. Three typical video forms are identified and discussed in relation to the way they reflect and shape perceptions of the contemporary congregational song genre.

Pastoral Care at the Time of Lockdown: An Exploratory Study of the Catholic Church in South Tyrol (Italy)

In order to assess the impact of covid-19 on catholic pastoral care, an exploratory study was conducted in South Tyrol (Italy) by administering an online survey to parish priests and laypeople with an office within the local Diocese. With reference to the lockdown period, the research aimed to investigate: (1) how pastoral care was delivered; (2) changes in the use of ict within religious activities; and (3) the vision of the future for the Church in a mediatized world. Respondents believe that: (1) pastoral activities have slowed down, even though contact with the faithful was kept up through phone or the Internet; (2) the level of digitalization of the parishes has increased; however, the communication was mostly one-way and top-down. Finally, results show that (3) attitudes towards digital media are divergent: they are perceived as having the potential to either strengthen or weaken the relationship between the Church and the faithful.