Religion At Play [Hardcover]

- Is a powerful position a guarantee that a religion will continue? - Does God take sides in religious power struggles? - Can God survive religious exclusivity and diversity? - Is God migrating from out there to in here ? - Is religion sustainable in the long run? In seeking answers to these questions, this book explores the possibilities afforded by playful religion. Religion has playful origins, but this aspect is forgotten as soon as institutional power becomes self-serving instead of subservient. Power changes the very essence of religion. Virtually all religions are distorted versions of a playful original. Institutionalization is religion's curse, not its blessing. Apparent success hides the failure of religion to be faithful to its original intent. This book helps find the way back from bordering to inclusivity and openness. Religion at Play is a work of love, a passionate call for us to let imagination and openness guide religious experience. Visionary and movingly written, the book affirms people's capacity to thwart power and to make religious experience a vibrant element in more just world-making projects. --Joao Biehl, author of Vita Play and playfulness are not often associated with religion, especially in its institutional forms. In this book, a distinguished anthropologist of religion reexamines the relationship between power and play, asking . . . whether the 'ludic' makes the human animal lucid or ludicrous? Whatever we conclude, this generous and deeply personal essay is full of wisdom. We should indeed make it a habit to look for possible inversions. We should not, however, make this our daily bread. Put differently, we should most certainly interrogate our convictions, but we should think twice before we abandon them. --Grace Davie, author of Religion in Britain since 1945 Designed as a personal manifesto, challenging to both faith believers and atheists, Andre Droogers' book Religion at Play combines creatively experiences l£z