{"id":41794,"date":"2017-09-06T05:32:26","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T09:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=41794"},"modified":"2017-09-06T04:50:25","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T08:50:25","slug":"super-smash-gods-brawl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/09\/super-smash-gods-brawl.html","title":{"rendered":"Super Smash Gods Brawl"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe><\/p>\nI had this game, <a href=\"http:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/612930\/Fight_of_Gods\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">\u201cFight of Gods,\u201d<\/a> drawn to my attention. It seems to take the \u201cBuff Jesus\u201d meme image and turn it into a video game. If you don\u2019t know the image I\u2019m referring to, here it is:<\/p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-41801\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2017\/09\/buff-Jesus.jpg\" alt=\"buff Jesus\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\"><\/p>\nThis way of thinking about Jesus \u2013 or ignoring him and substituting other symbols \u2013 seems to be growing in popularity in certain circles. Someone\u00a0recently told me to Google \u201cDeus Vult\u201d as an image search,\u00a0if I wanted to discover a whole realm of\u00a0profoundly disturbing white \u201cChristian\u201d nationalist material that would like there to be another Crusade in the historic sense of the word.<\/p>\nA lot of that crowd is apparently also involved in another Steam game, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crusaderkings.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Crusader Kings<\/a>, as one can see from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/CrusaderKings\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">subreddit<\/a> focused on that game. But similar kinds of things can be found elsewhere, such as the <a href=\"http:\/\/faithandheritage.com\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Faith & Heritage<\/a> website that another academic drew my attention to.<\/p>\nThe internet has certainly contributed something major to disturbing viewpoints such as these: where in the past one\u00a0might have read hand-typed newsletters from fringe sources that one received by mail, there wasn\u2019t the opportunity for tiny subsections of society in any given location to come together from around the globe online and get a sense that they are in fact a significant force in terms of sheer numbers.<\/p>\nReturning to \u201cFight of Gods,\u201d the reactions online largely range from dismay to bemusement. For instance, <a href=\"http:\/\/shoryuken.com\/2017\/09\/04\/fight-of-gods-is-now-available-on-steam-complete-with-jesus-and-buddha\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Sam Foxall writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>When first announced,\u00a0Fight of Gods<\/em>\u00a0looked to be your standard heavenly brawler with the usual assortment of deities from the Norse, Chinese and Greek pantheons. Then developer Digital Crafter announced that\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/shoryuken.com\/2017\/07\/26\/amaterasu-and-moses-join-the-fight-of-gods-roster\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">the prophet Moses<\/a>\u00a0was playable, with the Ten Commandments at his weapon. Now, as\u00a0Fight of Gods<\/em>\u00a0launches on Steam Early Access, Digital Crafter has revealed that Jesus and Buddha are also joining the roster.<\/p>\nWhile Buddha is an out there choice, this is the first time I have ever seen the Son of God in a fighting game. He joins as the roster after literally tearing himself down from the True Cross and using the arms as make-shift knuckle dusters. It brings a whole new meaning to the phrase \u2018cross-up\u2019.<\/p>\nI\u2019m a bit rusty on my Bible knowledge, but I don\u2019t remember the part of the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus beats all the money lenders in a first-to-ten\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/articles\/2017-09-04-jesus-beats-up-buddha-in-awful-looking-fighting-game-fight-of-gods\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Wesley Yin-Poole<\/a> thinks the whole thing looks awful, while also raising questions like whether Moses should be in a game of fights between gods \u2013 and whether Jesus should either, for that matter. Here\u2019s an excerpt from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/articles\/2017-09-04-jesus-beats-up-buddha-in-awful-looking-fighting-game-fight-of-gods\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">his article<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>Fight of Gods is an awful-looking 2D fighting game that attempts to answer the eternal playground question: who would win in a fight between Jesus and Buddha?<\/p>\nReally. As of today you can actually play as Jesus and beat up Buddha.<\/p>\nJesus punches Buddha in the face with the splintered parts of his cross, which are still nailed to his wrists because Jesus doesn\u2019t waste any time. He also wears a crown of thorns and a belt of thorns. Buddha, on the other hand, can slap Jesus into submission.<\/p>\nYou can also play as Moses and use the 10 Commandments to bash in your enemy\u2019s face, then drown them in a parting of the sea special move\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWhat do you make of \u201cFight of Gods\u201d? What do you make of \u201cBuff Jesus\u201d and \u201cDeus Vult\u201d and other such online memes and viewpoints?<\/p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-41802\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2017\/09\/Deus-Vult.jpg\" alt=\"Deus Vult\" width=\"533\" height=\"616\"><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I had this game, \u201cFight of Gods,\u201d drawn to my attention. It seems to take the \u201cBuff Jesus\u201d meme image and turn it into a video game. If you don\u2019t know the image I\u2019m referring to, here it is: This way of thinking about Jesus \u2013 or ignoring him and substituting other symbols \u2013 seems […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":41795,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1434,14880,2324,14882,2325,14881,14878,5677,6220,14879],"class_list":["post-41794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-games","tag-buddha","tag-buff","tag-crusade","tag-crusader","tag-crusades","tag-deus-vult","tag-fight-of-gods","tag-jesus","tag-kings","tag-steam"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Super Smash Gods Brawl<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I had this game, "Fight of Gods," drawn to my attention. It seems to take the "Buff Jesus" meme image and turn it into a video game. If you don't know the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/09\/super-smash-gods-brawl.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Super Smash Gods Brawl\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I had this game, "Fight of Gods," drawn to my attention. It seems to take the "Buff Jesus" meme image and turn it into a video game. If you don't know the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/09\/super-smash-gods-brawl.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-06T09:32:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-09-06T08:50:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2017\/09\/Fight-of-Gods-Jesus.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/09\/super-smash-gods-brawl.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/09\/super-smash-gods-brawl.html\",\"name\":\"Super Smash Gods Brawl\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-06T09:32:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-06T08:50:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\"},\"description\":\"I had this game, \\\"Fight of Gods,\\\" drawn to my attention. It seems to take the \\\"Buff Jesus\\\" meme image and turn it into a video game. If you don't know the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/09\/super-smash-gods-brawl.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/09\/super-smash-gods-brawl.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/09\/super-smash-gods-brawl.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Super Smash Gods Brawl\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/\",\"name\":\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\",\"description\":\"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\",\"name\":\"James F. McGrath\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James F. McGrath\"},\"description\":\"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf\",\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Super Smash Gods Brawl","description":"I had this game, \"Fight of Gods,\" drawn to my attention. It seems to take the \"Buff Jesus\" meme image and turn it into a video game. If you don't know the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/09\/super-smash-gods-brawl.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Super Smash Gods Brawl","og_description":"I had this game, \"Fight of Gods,\" drawn to my attention. It seems to take the \"Buff Jesus\" meme image and turn it into a video game. If you don't know the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/09\/super-smash-gods-brawl.html","og_site_name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","article_published_time":"2017-09-06T09:32:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-09-06T08:50:25+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2017\/09\/Fight-of-Gods-Jesus.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"James F. McGrath","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ReligionProf","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James F. McGrath","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/09\/super-smash-gods-brawl.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/09\/super-smash-gods-brawl.html","name":"Super Smash Gods Brawl","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-09-06T09:32:26+00:00","dateModified":"2017-09-06T08:50:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf"},"description":"I had this game, \"Fight of Gods,\" drawn to my attention. It seems to take the \"Buff Jesus\" meme image and turn it into a video game. If you don't know the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/09\/super-smash-gods-brawl.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/09\/super-smash-gods-brawl.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/09\/super-smash-gods-brawl.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Super Smash Gods Brawl"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/","name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","description":"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf","name":"James F. McGrath","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"James F. McGrath"},"description":"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.","sameAs":["https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}