Bücher der Reihe Journal for Religion, Film and Media

Today the dramas of world politics and a global economy continue to be represented and reconstructed on television and the Internet: as the Ukrainian athletes arrive in the stadium during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, Putin sleeps. China flexes its will to have absolute control over even a virus, and on the border between Ukraine and Russia, the latter amasses its military might. During all of these events on the political and economic world stage, the flame of Olympia remains lit, symbolising peace and traditionally dedicated to the Greek goddess Hestia, who protects family harmony. Religion and the media play a crucial role in this performance: the ancient religious ritual should guarantee that the tradition of international understanding and peace continues - at least during the Olympic Games - while these events are represented and reconstructed by the media. The current issue presents four contributions that discuss media ethics and religion from different perspectives.

Paradise Lost is not only the title of John Milton's famous epic poem (1667) but also a philosophical-theological notion linked to and emerging from the Fall from Eden in Genesis. It expresses - or imagines - the human experience of a definite rupture in history, with its inextinguishable urge to return to the time before the rupture and its yearning for an idealized version of this past. Throughout history, this longing has been expressed in artwork, architecture, and literary works, and it is perhaps best observed in the Romantic era, with its preference for the past, the future, and the contemporary exotic.Today, the notion of "Paradise Lost" has far from disappeared, finding postmodern manifestations in contemporary art and literature as well as in the revival of (secular) nationalism and (religious) fundamentalism. The 20th and 21st centuries have also seen the emergence of new arenas for narratives and iconographies of "Paradise Lost": popular culture and digital games. Within the field of game studies and the history of digital games, their technological developments, their game play, and their graphics and user interface design, the notion of "Paradise Lost" can be traced in three ways.(1) In the past decade, the game industry has been witnessing a surge in retro-gaming as a kind of narratological, ludological, visual, and technological longing for the early age of gaming. For example, some modern games have (re-)introduced the concept of perma-death (Wasteland 2 [Deep Silver, AT 2014], Hades [Supergiant Games, US 2020], Xcom [various, 1994 - present], the Diablo series [Diablo, Diablo II and Diablo III, Blizzard Entertainment, US 1997 - present]), and retro-graphics has become a deliberate design approach in contemporary games (Cuphead [Studio MDHR, CA 2017], Celeste [Matt Makes Games, CA 2017], Undertale [Toby Fox, US 2015]).(2) The industry - and the consumer - has also witnessed the emergence of various remakes of old-school classics (1942 [Capcom, JP 1984], Baldur's Gate [various, 1996-2016], Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus [GT Interactive, US 1997] and Oddworld: Soulstorm [Oddworld Inhabitants, US 2021]). In other words, the present longing for the past, or for the early (or golden) age of gaming, manifests itself in and through the game.(3) Some games explicitly employ and reflect on the idea of a rupture in human history, that is, the loss of an earlier (potentially utopian) state that is yearned for but beyond reach (for example, Horizon Zero Dawn [Guerilla Games, NL 2017]). This lost period could be medieval times, paradise, pre-9/11, pre-COVID in light of prolonged lockdowns, and so forth.

Media industry is a vibrant element of East Asian popular culture that has become increasingly important on a global level in the last decades. Japanese, and recently South Korean and Chinese films or TV series have a growing and worldwide audience not least because of easier access through streaming services. The many film productions provide a multifaceted arena of highly diverse content that spans nearly all aspects of the cultural developments in the countries. Religion has always played a major role in these contexts in various ways and in accordance with the highly diversified religious landscape of East Asia. Consequently, this issue brings together contributions on Japanese, Chinese and Korean films, including one additional glimpse to South Asia, thereby presenting portrayals of independent filmmakers, highly renowned classics, but also specimina of manga and anime, the cyberpunk genre, or on most recent highly successful streaming series. The admittedly tiny sample we can provide is intended to pique curiosity and encourage readers to delve deeper into the multifaceted and intriguing relationship between religion and media in Asia. If the presented contributions, which have been carefully selected, lead to academic discourse and inspire further research, then this issue will have served its purpose.