Page - 149 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/01

Reading The Book of Joseph | 149www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/1, 145–171 to a group of right-wing, Christian-inspired violent extremists.7 These cre- ative decisions have caused huge controversy among critics, players, and the general public, especially – or almost even exclusively – in the United States.8 At the head of the cult, self-identified as “Project at Eden’s Gate”, stands Joseph Seed aka The Father. Together with his brothers John and Jacob and their adopted sister Faith, Joseph tyrannizes the valley, killing all who dare resist and mind-controlling all those who are too afraid to resist. Local law en forcers eventually take interest. The story follows a nameless deputy sheriff who fails to arrest Joseph in the middle of a religious meeting at his com- pound. The arrest party is captured, and only the deputy succeeds in escaping. The rest of the game consists of establishing a resistance movement made up of the terrorized citizens of Hope County and killing all four Seed siblings, with Joseph the last to die. Project at Eden’s Gate is a classic religio-fanatic Doomsday cult.9 The game features a charismatic, but ultimately deluded leader-figure demanding ab- solute obedience of his followers. This leader creates a strong dichotomy be- tween the outside world, which is considered corrupted and hostile towards the cult, and the religious community itself, as the paramount of holiness. Joseph claims divine inspiration and proclaims the urgent coming of the apoc- alypse that will destroy all outsiders but will enable the cultists to be the pro- genitors of a new, purified human race. Project at Eden’s Gate uses traditional Christian religious language like “redemption”, “bliss”, “confession”, “sin”, “reckoning”, and “baptism”, but in a clearly violent and distorted fashion. Game critics have, not surprisingly, commented on this one-dimensional por- trayal of Christian fundamentalism.10 At the start of the game, when the deputy tries to escape, The Book of Joseph is found littered all over the game map (see fig. 2). The player can find copies on the shores of the Henbane River, used in baptism rituals (see fig. 3), in houses and mansions (see fig. 4), on numerous altars and shrines (see fig. 5), and so forth. That The Book of Joseph is found in various locations is indica- tive of the book’s ubiquity and Bible-like status in the religious community: devotees take it with them on their business, use it for religious ceremonies, 7 Bosman 2019, 223–229. 8 Machkovech 2017, Plante 2017, Rivera 2017, and Robinson 2017. 9 Snow 2003. 10 Green 2018 and Roberts 2018.