In my previous post examining religious elements in Minecraft, I looked at the presence of pilgrimage in the Minecraft Middle Earth project.\u00a0 Today I want to continue this line of thought and now look at video game recreations utilizing the Minecraft game system and how these recreations take on characteristics similar religious icons found in the Russian Orthodox church.\u00a0 (I’ve selected the Russian Orthodox Church only because of my familiarity with this tradition- if readers have familiarity with other denomination’s use of icons, please leave comments below.)<\/p>\n
For a brief summation of what the iconographic tradition means in Russian Orthodoxy, I turn to James Billington’s classic work on Russian culture, The Icon and the Axe<\/em>.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Christ-Pantocrator.jpeg\" "\\"Christ")
<\/a>988 is one of those ‘must-know’ dates in Russian history, as that fateful year in the 10th century marked the conversion of Kievian Rus’ (the historical precursor to the later Muscovite state) to Eastern Orthodox belief.\u00a0 One of the venerable traditions of Eastern Christianity centered on the use of icons to act not only as communicators of a spiritual message but also as conduits through which both believer and believed could communicate.\u00a0 According to Billington, Russia amplified two tendencies already present in 11th and 12th century Byzantine icons: they dematerialized the figures in icons, presenting the saints in a prescribed and stylized form, while also providing a new richness of detail through added coloring and emphasis on controlled emotional intensity.<\/p>\n