How videogaming can provide new avenues of connection and care between persons with disabilities and their spiritual communities.
Under the leadership of Director William Storrar, the Center of Theological Inquiry (CTI) in Princeton, New Jersey, has just completed the pilot research project, The Spiritual Loop Project on Machine Intelligence & Pastoral Care, assessing the potential of videogaming in enhancing the spiritual lives of persons with disabilities and how they can connect to their spiritual community through cooperative play.
“Our religious spaces don’t typically encourage play, but God does, and video games do, too.” CTI’s Research Fellow in Machine Intelligence and Pastoral Care, Rev Dr Erin Raffey, has studied the social dynamics of disability and family life, including her landmark study on the experience of shared joy in families with disabled members. Funding from the Templeton World Charity Foundation provided two years of in-depth research to explore how videogaming can provide new avenues of connection and care between persons with disabilities and their spiritual communities. Partnering with Maria Insa-Iglesias, a doctoral student in computing at Glasgow Caledonian University, this dynamic duo created the Spiritual Loop Game using the popular gaming platform Minecraft incorporating elements from the Biblical narrative and the Christian tradition.
Among the critical findings, this preliminary study revealed the critical role of cooperative play in fostering connection among neurodivergent people and their faith communities. During fieldwork, the research team were surprised to see the level of both expression and leadership displayed by participants. By creating avatars, they can do what they want without limitations in a digital environment. This pilot study confirmed not only the importance of play and the critical value online gaming as a promising platform to foster social collaboration and spiritual connection, but also the importance of centering research on disabled users’ insights.
The digital environment has a tremendous opportunity to expand and augment not just reality or accessibility, but our current religious practices. As a pilot study, the goal was to give additional opportunities for self-expression and leadership that may not be currently available and that through cooperative game tasks, people with and without disabilities can connect in new, deep ways online.
This research just scratches the surface of what is possible, but clearly demonstrates the tremendous potential for machine intelligence to enhance the spiritual lives of disabled persons and their spiritual community. Future directions of research include further study of how machine learning can increase access to all aspects of spiritual and social life, studying videogaming as an avenue for invigorating spiritual life through play for all community members, and considering the relationship between videogames and disabled leadership formation.
Join us for the launch of the final report of the Spiritual Loop Project during a webinar at 11:00 a.m. Eastern on Friday, February 24. Click here to register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/5116765588967/WN_UFLvQEgZQaO91M9E3gg50g
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Contact:
Erin Raffety
The Center of Theological Inquiry
609-683-4797
[email protected]
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