Sports and Christianity

"... this book is an ambitious interdisciplinary collection of material dealing with the confluence between sport and religion. While Michael Novak's Foreword is effusive in its praise, describing the contents as a 'treasure of careful and measured studies' (p. xii) ... In my view, despite the inclusion of one or two chapters that strike a slight note of discordance, it is fair to say that Novak's enthusiasm for the book is not misplaced. The text is divided into two main thematic sections, namely the history/genealogy of debates on the sport/religion relationship, and contemporary philosophical debates surrounding sport and Christianity ... with Watson and Parker jointly providing a seminal overview entitled 'Sports and Christianity: Mapping the Field'.... as a very thorough overview of the literature in the field, it is, dare I say, almost worth the cost of the book itself. Lengthy biographies for the eleven contributors and a solid index complete this very impressive package, a collection that this reviewer cannot really do justice to in terms of its scope and depth and its potential to make its readers think anew about the enduring and complex relationship between sport and Christianity." - Rob Hess, Journal of the Australian Society for Sports History, Victoria University, Melbourne, "This significant book is a welcome addition to the growing literature on sport and Christianity. It is hard to think of two people in the UK who have done more to encourage and stimulate such thinking than Nick Watson and Andy Parker. The book's purpose is to "illustrate is the way in which this relationship has developed in specific social and cultural contexts and how we might think further about the intimate connections (and disconnections) between sport and the Christian faith". The book's ten chapters cover history, philosophy, sociology and theology. The authors include such eminent scholars as Robert Higgs, Shirl Hoffman, Scott Kretchmar, Kevin Lixey Hugh MacLeod and Tracy Trothen. The longest and most significant chapter is the authors' "Sports and Christianity: Mapping the Field" which is the most systematic introduction to the academic literature in the field which is available. The authors survey and contexualize what has been written in a chapter which will undoubtedly become a standard text in the field. This is followed by a table of key resources to help the reader take it further. There is a list of 35 key texts as well as a 32 page bibliography, with enough material there to keep you reading a lifetime.An extremely useful book which will be essential reading for anyone who is serious about understanding the relationship of sport and Christianity for some years to come". - J.Stuart Weir, Verite Sport "The essays in Sports and Christianity form a disparate collection, clearing the ground for more systematic inquiry into the intersection of sport and Christian faith...Certain themes recur in the volume: the senses in which sport is a rival or complementary pointer to the "sacred"; the parallels between "flow" or "peak experience" in sport and in the arts and ritual action; the theological and ethical questions raised by "disability" sport and by bio-technological enhancement; the proper part played by the body, given the history of Christian devaluation of the physical as against the spiritual; and the place of sport in Christian education". -Dr Inge "This is an ambitious book. It largely measures up to its ambition, when it could so easily have faltered, falling between the two stools or parts of its sub-heading. This is a compliment not only to its extremely experienced authors but to its wise editors, though they modestly claim to be relatively recent arrivals in the field, whose first chapter, after their short introduction and the philosophical flourish of Michael Novak's brief foreword, placing sport firmly within 'the ki

Nick Watson is Senior Lecturer in Sport, Culture and Religion at York St John University, and was the Founding Director of the Centre for the Study of Sport and Spirituality (2003-2009). He is the co-author and co-editor respectively of: Sport and Spirituality: An Introduction (2007) and Theology, Ethics and Transcendence in Sports (2011), both published by Routledge. Andrew Parker is Professor of Sport and Christian Outreach and Director of the Centre for Sport, Spirituality and Religion (CSSR) in the Faculty of Sport, Health and Social Care at the University of Gloucestershire (UoG), UK.

Foreword Michel Novak. Introduction. Andrew Parker and Nick J. Watson Part 1: Historical Perspectives on Sport and Christianity 1. Sports and Christianity: Mapping the Field Nick J. Watson and Andrew Parker 2. Was St. Paul a Sports Enthusiast? Reality and Rhetoric in Pauline Athletic Metaphors Victor C. Pfitzner 3. Sport and Religion in England, c.1790-1914 Hugh McLeod 4. Harvesting Souls in the Stadium: The Rise of Sports Evangelism Shirl James Hoffman 5. Stereotypes and Archetypes in Religion and American Sport Robert J. Higgs Part 2: Contemporary Perspectives on Sport and Christianity 6. Special Olympians as a 'Prophetic Sign' to the Modern Sporting Babel Nick J. Watson 7. The Technoscience Enhancement Debate in Sports: What's Religion Got to Do With It? Tracy J. Trothen 8. The Quest for Perfection in the Sport of Baseball: The Magnanimous Individual or the Magnanimous Team? Jacob L. Goodson 9. The Vatican's Game Plan for Maximizing Sport's Educational Potential Kevin Lixey 10. Hard-Won Sporting Achievements and Spiritual Humility: Are They Compatible? Scott Kretchmar