"På riktigt men på låtsas" : En religionsvetenskaplig studie om rollspel och verklighet med ett lekperspektiv

Sammanfattning: This essay explores experiences of religion in role-playing games; table-top role-playing and live-action role-playing in the Nordic Larp and roleplay-tradition. Semi-structured interviews were used within an explorative qualitative method inspired by grounded theory. The informants were all role-players who each have acted as religious characters within the spheres of the games, half of the informants were non-religious and the other half religious to some extent. A model of three spheres was constructed for the analysis, consisting of Huizingas definition of play and Caillois critic of the aforementioned by adding Durkheims definition of religion, were both play and religion is viewed as something set apart from the ordinary world. The informant’s experiences of religion in role-play were then examined in the light of three separate spheres: the play, the ordinary world and religion. The study showed the importance of keeping the separation between the spheres intact and the players showed a desire to make play as authentic as possible, including the psychological experience, but emphasized that play never can be or should be perceived as equal to actual experience gained in one of the two other spheres.