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 For all the deconstructive efforts that the study of religion has engaged with over the last few decades, ‘religion’ often still carries with it the association of seriousness and solemnity. While this is no doubt true in many cases, it is a disservice to the multifaceted nature of the phenomenon to overlook the many playful, creative, and mundane elements that are present in religion as well. Pen-and-paper roleplaying games are developed with the specific aim to teach audiences about the disappearing indigenous religions of their areas; Pentecostal Christians see bird droppings on their clothes or slipping on ice as humorous signs from God to stay humble; entire movements are built to satirize organized religion as phenomenon, but end up as full-fledged religions; and astral travellers try to prove their practice is true through organized potlucks in the astral realm. These are just some of the various ways in which creativity and playfulness are wound up with religion and spirituality. 

The goal of this international workshop is to celebrate the ‘fun’ aspect of religion, to find it in various unexpected places, and to discuss the importance of the concepts of playfulness and play in our discipline. The empirical focus will be on the contemporary West, to limit problems of comparison across time or cultures. Participants are encouraged to bring in their expertise from other disciplines such as folkloristics, cognitive science, occupational studies, and game studies. Interdisciplinary conversations will specifically be given room in the program—aside from the individual presentations—in order to discuss what research questions surrounding playfulness, play, and games are of interest to the study of religion in particular.

The following questions will be of central importance to the workshop, the papers given, and the wider discussions held:

1. What role is there for playful attitudes in religious or spiritual movements?

2. How can we constructively conceptualize ‘playfulness’ and ‘play’ in the study of religion, and how do they differ in their use from established terms such as creativity?

3. What theoretical insights do we gain from taking ‘fun’ seriously in the study of religion?

4. How should interdisciplinary cooperation look like, in order to fruitfully explore the above questions?

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