Like religion, playing and watching sports is a deeply meaningful, celebratory ritual enjoyed by millions across the world. The first scholarly work designed for use in both religion and sports courses, this collection develops and then applies a theoretically grounded approach to studying sports engagement globally and its relationship to modern-day issues of violence, difference, social protest, and belonging.
Case studies explore the place of sports in mainstream faiths, such as Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity, and lesser-known religious groups, particularly in Africa. It covers football, baseball, and basketball but also archery, soccer, bullfighting, judo, and track. Essays reflect all skill levels, from amateur to professional, and find surprising affinities among practices and cultures in locations as disparate as Germany and Japan, Spain and Saudi Arabia. Thoroughly examining a range of phenomena, this collection fully captures the unique overlap of two universal institutions and their interplay with human society, politics, and culture.
- Table of Contents
- A Note to Instructors on How to Use This Text
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Why Study Religion and Sports
- Part 1: Why Do People Think Sports Are a Religion?
- Case 1. Friday Night Lights: High School Football as Religion in Odessa
- Case 2. Oscar Pistorius and What It Means to Be Human
- Part 2: Does Religion Have a Place in Sports, or Sports in Religion?
- Case 3. Zen and Archery in Japan
- Case 4. O God of Players: Prayer and Women’s Basketball at a Catholic College
- Case 5. Juju: Witchcraft and African Football
- Case 6. Jewish Umpires and Baseball Chapel
- Part 3: What Happens When Religion and Sports Come Into Conflict?
- Case 7. American Jews and the Boycott of the 1936 Berlin Olympics
- Case 8. The Belleville Grays and Playing Sports on the Sabbath
- Case 9. Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and the National Anthem Ritual in the NBA
- Case 10. Judo and Hijab at the Olympics
- Part 4: Religion and Ethical Dilemmas in Sports
- Case 11. Caroline Pla and CYO Football: Should Girls Be Allowed to Compete with Boys?
- Case 12. Should the Roman Catholic Church Condemn Bullfighting in Spain?
- Case 13. Florida State University Seminoles’ Osceola and Renegade: Mascots or Symbols
- Case 14. Jack Taylor’s 138 Points: Is “Running Up the Score” Christian?
- Case 15. Conclusion: What Would Phil Jackson Do?
- Notes
- Index
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