Guy Marchessault

Is it possible to reconcile the spectacular approach of the media with the inner nature of the spiritual? Can one imagine the presence of religions within an ambience of entertainment? There always were tensions between religions and games: they feared theatre, play, music, arts, dance, cards, and media, of course. Why is entertainment considered to be so dangerous? Would it be a better approach to discern true spiritual openings through play, and through media entertainment? A historian, a film director, communication researchers, a philosopher, various sociologists and anthropologists refined understandings of the capacity of play revealing the human search for meaning, and spiritual journey. To play—and media entertainment—can open humans to their own ‘unlimited’ potentials, giving significance to their relation with the world and with other humans, and so with the sacred. But this can be done only if one respects the typical languages of the media: narratives and storytelling, which implies capacity of creativity in arts and rhetoric, combined with respect for ethical and spiritual dimensions of believers.