A Brief Theology of Sport

Lincoln Harvey

A new and original contribution on sport and theology, ideal for use in courses on theology and popular culture.

Is sport some kind of rival religion at odds with the Christian faith? Or does sport offer a fun-filled way to worship God? Do we instead need a new way to imagine sport in light of the Christian faith?

Lincoln Harvey helps the reader integrate a love for sport into a life of faith. He offers readers a new vision for sport in dialogue with traditional Christian teachings. The nature of sport is initially explored in conversation with various philosophers and theologians. Sport is then mapped onto the Christian doctrine of creation. Lincoln Harvey argues that sport is not an act of worship, but is instead a vital element--along with worship and work--in the life of the Sabbath-shaped creature.

Through this original and provocative account, the reader will discover sport as the ritual celebration of contingency, the institutional expression that we are neither God nor nothing. As a result, by the end of the book--with genuine confidence in their theological understanding of sport--the reader is free to embrace the joy of sport and to critique contemporary attempts to turn it into a strange religion.