Religion and Sport in North America

From athletes praising God to pastors using sport metaphors in the pulpit, the association between sport and religion in North America is often considered incidental. Yet religion and sport have been tightly intertwined for millennia and continue to inform, shape, and critique one another. Moreover, sport, rather than being a solely secular activity, is one of the most important sites for debates over gender, race, capitalism, the media, and civil religion. Traditionally, scholarly writings on religion and sport have focused on the question of whether sport is a religion, using historical, philosophical, theological, and sociological insights to argue this matter. While these efforts sought to answer an important question, contemporary issues related to sports were neglected, such as globalization, commercialization, feminism, masculinity, critical race theory, and the ethics of doping. This volume contains lively, up-to-date essays from leading figures in the field to fill this scholarly gap. It treats religion as an indispensable prism through which to view sports, and vice versa. This book is ideal for students approaching the topic of religion and sport. It will also be of interest to scholars studying sociology of religion, sociology of sport, religion and race, religion and gender, religion and politics, and sport in general.

Jeffrey Scholes is Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Religious Diversity and Public Life at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA. Randall Balmer is John Phillips Chair in Religion at Dartmouth College, USA.

Introduction Part 1 Evangelicalism and Sport 1 "There Is Talk of Black Power": Christian Athletes and the Revolt of the Black Athlete 2 "The Greatest Christian Movie of All Time": 300 and Spartan Masculinity as Cultural Repertoire in Christian Mixed Martial Arts and Beyond 3 Forgiving Freeze: Jerry Falwell Jr., Donald Trump, and the Making of Liberty University Football Part 2 Sport as a Religio-cultural Vehicle 4 Structuring Sports, Structuring Community: The Islamic Society of Chester County Debates a Basketball Court 5 Desiring "Deep Community": Formations of Soccer and Evangelical Christianity in the British Columbia Christian Soccer League 6 Sport, Religion, and Absence: The Subfield of Religion and Sport as an Explanatory Tool for the Moment Part 3 Religion, Sport, and the Market 7 Foucault for Heisman: College Football and the Liturgies of Power 8 "Be More Human": CrossFit, Reebok, and Sporting Consumerism 9 Fandom Transfigured: Fantasy Football as Neoliberal Religion Part 4 Religion and Sport through a Racial Frame 10 Ted Corbitt: The Once-forgotten and Now-remembered Pioneer of American Distance Running 11 Savage Symbols: Native American Mascots in the USA 12 Race, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, and Religious Realism 13 -Dios Bendiga Whose América? Resisting the Ritual Theologizing of Nation Postscript: White Hauntings, Black Hoops: The Ghosts of Kyrie Irving