{"id":1304,"date":"2010-02-05T22:14:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-05T22:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1304"},"modified":"2010-02-05T22:14:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-05T22:14:00","slug":"magical-dolls-and-missionary-board-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1304","title":{"rendered":"Magical Dolls and Missionary Board Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Publishers Weekly,<\/i> a short review<\/a> of a new book co-authored by Nikki Bado-Fralick, my co-editor in the Pagan Studies book series (This book is not a part of that series, however!)<\/p>\n

Toying with God: The World of Religious Games and Dolls<\/a>\"\"<\/i> by Nikki Bado-Fralick and Rebecca Sachs Norris, Baylor Univ. <\/p>\n

For Bado-Fralick and Sachs Norris (religious studies professors at Iowa State University and Merrimack College, respectively), religious games and dolls are charged with \u201cthe magic of childhood combined with the mystery of religion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The authors brilliantly use their subject to reveal a complex interplay between worship and the workings of popular culture. A detour into ancient divination practices using dice, magical dolls, and sports as ritual shows these items to be anything but superficial, and raises a central question: why do religious playthings often evoke feelings of unease?<\/p>\n

Like the religious toys it analyses, this book is at once fun and serious business. Dolls like Buddy Christ and Nunzilla or unwinnable Buddhist board games may produce a few perplexed laughs, but a game like Missionary Conquest<\/i>, won by setting up the most global missions, has an undeniably colonialist edge.<\/p>\n

The authors also use toys and dolls to explore consumerism, feminism, politics, and the nature of ritual and play. In this readable and fresh look at religious culture, the authors are critical and respectful. They\u2019d rather cast dice than throw stones.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Publishers Weekly, a short review of a new book co-authored by Nikki Bado-Fralick, my co-editor in the Pagan Studies book series (This book is not a part of that series, however!) Toying with God: The World of Religious Games and Dolls by Nikki Bado-Fralick and Rebecca Sachs Norris, Baylor Univ. For Bado-Fralick and Sachs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[10,4],"class_list":["post-1304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-american-religion","tag-scholarship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-l2","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7925,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7925","url_meta":{"origin":1304,"position":0},"title":"Passing of Nikki Bado","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I was just informed today of the passing of an old friend and colleague in Pagan studies, Nikki Bado, who taught at Iowa State University. She had been on medical leave for the last year or so, and apparently suffered a heart attack after her last surgery. I have forgotten\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"nikki","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/nikki.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":382,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=382","url_meta":{"origin":1304,"position":1},"title":"Is 'Hollywood' the problem?One of\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 15, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Is 'Hollywood' the problem?One of my favorite Pagan academics, Nikki Bado-Fralick, says that the entertainment industry tends to portray certain pagan practices, including witchcraft or Wicca, with a thriller aspect.The Hermit blog critiques the critique.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":714,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=714","url_meta":{"origin":1304,"position":2},"title":"Online lecture: Paganism and Nature Religion","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"This Sunday, Sept. 10, at 8 p.m. Eastern Time I will be kicking off the first of Cherry Hill Seminary's online mini-classes with a real-time \"lecture\" on Paganism and nature religion.Cost is $25. You do not have to be enrolled in any Cherry Hill classes to participate in my online\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6604,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6604","url_meta":{"origin":1304,"position":3},"title":"“Choose How Cute or Evil She Should Be”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The sexy witch. The evil witch. The cute witch. What accessories should she wear? What animal is her familiar? And where did she come from? When I ran across this website (another update of the old paper doll), I thought of two things right away. One was a book co-authored\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"witchcraft\"","block_context":{"text":"witchcraft","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=witchcraft"},"img":{"alt_text":"historical witch creator","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/historical-witch-creator.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":603,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=603","url_meta":{"origin":1304,"position":4},"title":"Fairies, the Dead, and Book-Blogging","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Spring semester has started, and teaching does cut into blogging time. And my reading list (for myself) is huge: all the books that I ordered at AAR-SBL (and elsewhere) started arriving in December. I just finished At the Bottom of the Garden: A Dark History of Fairies, Hobgoblins, and Other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"fairies\"","block_context":{"text":"fairies","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=fairies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":398,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=398","url_meta":{"origin":1304,"position":5},"title":"Felicitas Goodman","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 1, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Word comes of the passing of Felicitas Goodman on 31 March. She was in her early nineties.Born to ethnic German parents in Hungary, she attended the University of Heidelburg. She came to the United States after World War II and worked as a scientific translator before entering graduate school as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"New Mexico\"","block_context":{"text":"New Mexico","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=new-mexico"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}