Many people are passionate about sport, yet few give thought to its role and importance in their lives - let alone its relationship to Christian faith. This book examines the potential of sports and challenges readers to consider how it relates to their deepest passions, behaviours, and actions, while providing newcomers to the field with a framework to help consider the connection between sports participation and faith-based values.
Featuring academic writers from a range of disciplinary fields, including philosophy, theology, sports studies and education, Sport and Christianity: Practices for the Twenty-First Century sheds insight into the meaning of sports for Christians as participants and as practitioners. Divided into practises for the mind, for the heart, and for moral life, the numerous topics include the value of play in sports, sports as a means for dialogue between faith traditions, sports as a place to cultivate virtue and the Christian spiritual life, and prayer and religious experiences in sports The result is a text that promotes new ways of thinking about the sports-Christianity relationship while at the same time developing a deeper understanding of the place of sports in our everyday lives.
Drawing on theology, psychology, history, sociology, and philosophy to recognize sport's potential as an element of worship of God, while also acknowledging how sport can have negative consequences, the book adds to our understanding of the complex connection between sport and Christianity. The application of servant leadership, self-knowledge and the balance between healthy competition and envy to sport, as well as the analysis of how a theology of play might inform a theology of sport, are among the book's groundbreaking contributions. The book will be a classic for years to come.