Religious Life Pop Culture

Project Leader: Prof. Dr. Mirko Breitenstein
Research Assistant: Paul Sarich

Medieval monasteries and the vita religiosa continue to exert an influence even today, as evidenced, among other things, by their depictions in popular culture. Games such as Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Crusader Kings 3, as well as TV series like Vikings and The Last Kingdom, incorporate depictions of medieval religious orders and monastic life as elements of their medieval settings. From monks and nuns who interact with the respective characters to monasteries that serve as settings for stories and quests, most pop culture media set in the Middle Ages present aspects of the vita religiosa as part of their narratives. Often, the integration of these elements constructs very specific narratives about medieval religious life, whether consciously or unconsciously.
Analyses of religious imagery in digital games, as well as in film and television, have already been provided by Robert Houghton, Theresia Heimerl, and Lisa Kienzl, among others. It is striking, however, that cross-media analyses are still relatively rare. This project aims to address this gap by not specializing in a single media type, but rather by examining various forms of popular culture—such as digital and analog games, films, TV series, and images—to highlight, analyze, and compare the narratives constructed within them. The aim is to examine how monasteries, monastic life, and religious orders are constructed and what roles are both attributed to and denied them. To this end, a cross-media comparison will also be conducted. Accordingly, this project addresses the following questions: “What functions, roles, and characteristics are attributed to monasteries and their ways of life in pop-cultural media? What kind of image of the medieval vita religiosa is constructed through these narratives?”
The notion that medieval life was gloomy and arduous is a narrative that has long since been refuted, yet it remains present in many people’s minds. In reality, life in the Middle Ages—including religious ways of life—could be extremely diverse. Religious ways of life could indeed be quite diverse. From the hermit-like Desert Fathers and Mothers, who retreated to the Egyptian desert as early as late antiquity to lead a contemplative life devoted to God, to monastic orders such as the Cistercians, which spanned many branch monasteries, monastic ways of life evolved and underwent reforms throughout the European Middle Ages. Particularly in light of the sometimes extraordinary spiritual influence and the economic and political power emanating from some monasteries, their social impact and historical legacy can hardly be overlooked.
To achieve the goal of this project, the thematic areas of monastic history and vita religiosa will first be examined within an academic framework. This is intended to provide a foundation for subsequent analyses and to assist in contextualizing the constructed narratives.
Subsequently, the methodological foundations for analysis will be established. In doing so, various forms of analysis—adapted to the different media types—will be examined, compared, and selected to provide an optimal basis for analysis. For digital and analog games, for example, the frameworks developed by Mathias Herrmann and Martin Reimer, as well as the analyses by Lukas Boch and Anna Klara Falke,10 will be utilized. While the framework by Herrmann and Reimer enables the analysis of both digital and analog games, that of Boch and Falke focuses solely on analog games. A comparison of the potential advantages and disadvantages of the respective frameworks is highly relevant to the analysis, as this is the only way to ensure a high-quality analysis. A similar approach will also be applied to the other media types.
In the following chapters, the analyses of pop-cultural media take center stage. A separate chapter is dedicated to each type of media in order to make the analyses as focused and in-depth as possible. It is important to note that the analyses are not intended to evaluate “correctness.” The selected media types are forms of entertainment that generally do not claim to provide a “correct” historical narrative, but rather tell and construct history in media-specific ways.
To select the research subjects, certain selection criteria must be established. In the case of digital games, only those in which monasteries or religious orders are part of the active gameplay should be included in the shortlist; that is, games in which players do not merely passively observe the monasteries but actively experience them within the gameplay. Furthermore, the focus should be on games that have been tagged “Medieval” on the Steam distribution platform. Additionally, only games released in 2010 or later should be included to ensure relevance. Finally, Early Access games will be excluded. The same criteria will apply to board games. Here, too, only games that present monasteries as part of the gaming experience will be shortlisted. In addition, sales figures will be taken into account to select the most popular games, as it is reasonable to assume that high popularity can lead to widespread dissemination of historical narratives. For both types of games, it is important to exclude those that use fantasy worlds as settings.
The selection criteria for films, TV series, and images, however, must be structured differently. With these media types, the interactivity factor—which games offer through direct influence on gameplay and thus the plot—is absent. Here, only works should be selected whose storylines take place in medieval Europe. In addition, the characters must come into contact with monasteries or religious orders, or monasteries and religious orders must exert an influence on the plot. Furthermore, works that construct unambiguous fantasy worlds are excluded.