The relationship between religion and the media as reported by Christal Whelan, Benjamin Dorman, Jolyon Thomas and Ian Reader vary to the degree that religion and its capacity to induce personal transformation are subordinated to the media and its capacity to entertain. Using Jolyon Thomas' concept of shûûkyôô asobi (religious play), I have constructed a scheme for understanding these papers within an analytical continuum that allows for (1) the recognition that both religion and entertainment are locked in an interactive relationship at the same time that (2) distinctions can be made about the greater or lesser role played by religion as a transformative fantasy in relationship to entertainment as imaginative amusement.
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