Playing and Believing

The article tries to give a solution to a key problem for modern religious man and modern theology: what kind of reality is at stake in religious language and religious belief? Questions of how reality is related to concepts and social contexts are discussed particularly with respect to children's make-believe play, and a distinction is introduced between reality as conceptualized by us, as constructed by us and as constituted by us. The article proposes a third position between what in philosophy of religion is called realism and anti- or non-realism, with respect to the existence of God. The reasons why something is considered to be real are complex and differ from context to context. In conclusion the article states that one can choose to ignore metaphysical realism and still keep both reference and reality.