Religion Evolved 1:1 : A pilot study of virtual role-play and contemporary vernacular religiosity from a participatory perspective.

The overall purpose of this thesis is to introduce aspects of the popular cultural expression of virtual role-play in the context of religious studies. It is based on theories particularly of lived and vernacular religion as well as of mediatization. The aim is to deepen the knowledge around intra-actions between contemporary existential and religious dimensions, popular cultural frameworks (play-based roleplaying), and media technologies (virtual digital platforms). The thesis also presents a model for role-playing formats based on the concepts of play versus game. The analysis of the material - consisting of five qualitative, in-depth interviews with role-players in the online virtual world of Second Life - shows that all participants to varying degrees explore, express and generate understandings and experiences that revolve around their own understanding of life, including existential and/or religious perspectives. This is explicitly manifested in direct relation to a pronounced religiosity and religious purpose via the role-play for some of the participants. For others, it may appear through more subtle - in some cases unexamined and/or implicit – experiences. Based on the thesis' understanding and theory, these can be said to touch on existential, religious and philosophical dimensions. The study shows how the respondents' role-play overall intra-acts with the factual reality regarding the formation of their life worlds. Furthermore, it suggests that virtual, play-based role-play can be understood as a socio-cultural – and a socio-occultural - structure, as well as a complex intra-active medium for exploring, expressing and generating religiosity