Download or read book Onward Christian Athletes written by Tom Krattenmaker and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2010 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Onward Christian Athletes, religion expert and commentator Tom Krattenmaker provides a first-of-its-kind exploration of what is really happening where sports and faith converge, and the larger story it tells about popular Christianity in American life in the new century.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in America written by Paul C. Gutjahr and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 737 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Early Americans have long been considered "A People of the Book" Because the nickname was coined primarily to invoke close associations between Americans and the Bible, it is easy to overlook the central fact that it was a book-not a geographic location, a monarch, or even a shared language-that has served as a cornerstone in countless investigations into the formation and fragmentation of early American culture. Few books can lay claim to such powers of civilization-altering influence. Among those which can are sacred books, and for Americans principal among such books stands the Bible. This Handbook is designed to address a noticeable void in resources focused on analyzing the Bible in America in various historical moments and in relationship to specific institutions and cultural expressions. It takes seriously the fact that the Bible is both a physical object that has exercised considerable totemic power, as well as a text with a powerful intellectual design that has inspired everything from national religious and educational practices to a wide spectrum of artistic endeavors to our nation's politics and foreign policy. This Handbook brings together a number of established scholars, as well as younger scholars on the rise, to provide a scholarly overview--rich with bibliographic resources--to those interested in the Bible's role in American cultural formation.
Download or read book Bad Sports written by Dave Zirin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-07-20 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A THOUGHT-PROVOKING LOOK AT THE BIG BUSINESS AND IMMORAL PRACTICES BEHIND PROFESSIONAL SPORTS BY ACCLAIMED SPORTSWRITER DAVE ZIRIN, HAILED AS THE “CONSCIENCE OF AMERICAN SPORTSWRITING” (THE WASHINGTON POST ) The fastest-growing sector of today’s sports audience is the alienated fan. Complaints abound: from inflated ticket prices, $6 hot dogs, and $9 beers to owners endlessly demanding new multimillion-dollar stadiums funded by public tax dollars. Those sitting in the owners’ boxes are increasingly placing profit over players’ performances and fan loyalty. Bad Sports cuts through the hype and bombast to zero in on tales of abusive, dictatorial owners who move their teams thousands of miles away from their fan base, use their stadiums as religious and political platforms, or hold communities ransom for millions of dollars of taxpayer money to fund their gargantuan stadiums. As the multibillion-dollar sports-industrial complex continues to lumber along, Dave Zirin is the voice in the wilderness, speaking out for the common fan with a tough, passionate, and intelligent voice that will remind readers that there is more to sportswriting than glowing athlete profiles.
Download or read book The Altars Where We Worship written by Juan M. Floyd-Thomas and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2016-12-02 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While a large percentage of Americans claim religious identity, the number of Americans attending traditional worship services has significantly declined in recent decades. Where, then, are Americans finding meaning in their lives, if not in the context of traditional religion? In this provocative study, the authors argue that the objects of our attention have become our god and fulfilling our desires has become our religion. They examine the religious dimensions of six specific aspects of American culturebody and sex, big business, entertainment, politics, sports, and science and technologythat function as “altars†where Americans gather to worship and produce meaning for their lives. The Altars Where We Worship shows how these secular altars provide resources for understanding the self, others, and the world itself. “For better or worse,†the authors write, “we are faced with the reality that human experiences before these altars contain religious characteristics in common with experiences before more traditional altars.†Readers will come away with a clearer understanding of what religion is after exploring the thoroughly religious aspects of popular culture in the United States.
Download or read book Elite written by Adam D. Metz and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2018-10-23 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beyond an occasional sports-inspired sermon illustration, sports are generally regarded as having little relevance to the Christian faith. More often, they are viewed as a welcome and safe reprieve from politics and religion. Quietly, however, as they avoid the discerning eye of the church, sports are slowly overtaking families and overwhelming parents. Under the labels "elite," "select," and "travel," a new experience of sports has taken root in American culture demanding financial burdens, time commitments, and heightened pressures never before seen. Community leaders from various public sectors have criticized many recent trends in youth sports, but, alas, where has the church been? This new "elite" expression of youth sports is quickly building an intimidating front against the church. As church attendance declines, "elite" youth sports participation is on the rise. This book ventures into the challenging, controversial, and powerful world of youth sports. Young people participate in sports more than just about any other activity, and the church has neglected its role in providing a voice of discernment for what participating in sports should look like. Christians are desperately in need of a manifesto for helping them wrestle with the complex, exciting, and often exhausting world of youth sports.
Download or read book The Spirit of the Game written by Paul Emory Putz and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-10-02 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Displays of religious faith have become commonplace on America's baseball diamonds, basketball courts, football fields, and beyond. How did religion become so entwined with big-time sports in America? The Spirit of the Game provides the answer to this question by offering a sweeping history of the Christian athlete movement in the United States--and its impact on American religion and the religion of sports.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Christian Fundamentalism written by Andrew Atherstone and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-01-18 with total page 737 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This authoritative volume offers the fullest account to date of Christian fundamentalism, its origins in the nineteenth century, and its development up to the present day. It looks at the movement in global terms and through a number of key subjects and debates in which it is actively engaged.
Download or read book Sports and Christianity written by Nick J. Watson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This interdisciplinary text examines the sports-Christianity interface from Protestant and Catholic perspectives. In addition to a "systematic review of literature," the contributors, who include many of the pioneers in the field, address a wide range of topics. These include biblical athletic metaphors, disability, evangelism, professionalism and celebrity, humility, the Vatican's perspective on sport and genetic enhancement technologies.
Download or read book Sociology of Sport written by George Harvey Sage and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-10 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Now in its twelfth edition, Sociology of Sport offers a compact yet comprehensive and integrated perspective on sport in North American society. Bringing a unique viewpoint to the subject, George H. Sage, D. Stanley Eitzen, Becky Beal, and Matthew Atencio analyze and, in turn, demythologize sport. This method promotes an understanding of how a sociological perspective differs from commonsense perceptions about sport and society, helping students to understand sport in a new way"--
Download or read book Touchdowns for Jesus and Other Signs of Apocalypse written by Marcia W. Mount Shoop and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 123 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do sports matter so much to so many people? And why should we care? Far from being a distraction or a trivial pastime, sports tell us deep truths about ourselves. Big-time sports are a particularly potent mirror for humanity--reflecting both our promising possibilities and our demonic distortions. Theologian (and football coach's wife) Marcia Mount Shoop invites you to take a closer look at the hold that sports have on us. Touchdowns for Jesus takes you beneath the veil in some of the most challenging issues in sports today: fanaticism, sexism, racism, and abuse of power. And beneath the lifted veil you also encounter wisdom about how we can find our way back to what is most life-giving about sports. If you love sports, or if you just wonder why others do, Touchdowns for Jesus will give you a whole new way to view the games people play.
Download or read book The Bible in American Life written by Philip Goff and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a paradox in American Christianity. According to Gallup, nearly eight in ten Americans regard the Bible as either the literal word of God or inspired by God. At the same time, surveys have revealed gaps in these same Americans' biblical literacy. These discrepancies reveal the complex relationship between American Christians and Holy Writ, a subject that is widely acknowledged but rarely investigated. The Bible in American Life is a sustained, collaborative reflection on the ways Americans use the Bible in their personal lives. It also considers how other influences, including religious communities and the Internet, shape individuals' comprehension of scripture. Employing both quantitative methods (the General Social Survey and the National Congregations Study) and qualitative research (historical studies for context), The Bible in American Life provides an unprecedented perspective on the Bible's role outside of worship, in the lived religion of a broad cross-section of Americans both now and in the past. The Bible has been central to Christian practice, and has functioned as a cultural touchstone From the broadest scale imaginable, national survey data about all Americans, down to the smallest details, such as the portrayal of Noah and his ark in children's Bibles, this book offers insight and illumination from scholars across the intellectual spectrum. It will be useful and informative for scholars seeking to understand changes in American Christianity as well as clergy seeking more effective ways to preach and teach about scripture in a changing environment.
Download or read book Sport and the Christian Religion written by Andrew Parker and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2014-04-11 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a systematic and interdisciplinary analysis of the published literature and practical initiatives on the sports-Christianity interface from both Protestant and Catholic perspectives. Within the context of this relatively new and rapidly expanding area of inquiry, this text offers an original contribution to the current literature for both undergraduate and postgraduate students and serves as a point of reference for academics from a wide range of related fields including theology and religious studies, psychology, history, sociology, philosophy, psychology, health-religion studies, and sports studies. The book will also be of interest to sports chaplains, those involved in sports ministry organizations, physical educators and sports coaches who wish to adopt a more critical and ‘holistic’ approach to their work. As modern-day sports are often entwined with commercial and political agendas, the book also provides an important response to the ‘win-at-all-costs’ and business orientated philosophy, which characterises much of contemporary sport practice, yet which cannot always be fully understood through secular inquiry.
Download or read book Religion and Sport in North America written by Jeffrey Scholes and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-09-13 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Sports Chaplaincy written by Andrew Parker and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-24 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This ground-breaking book provides an in-depth analysis of the theory and practice of sports chaplaincy in a global context. Written in an accessible style, yet based on academic evidence and theory, the contributors include those leading major national chaplaincy organisations located in the UK, US, Australia and Continental Europe, as well as chaplains and sport psychologists working in elite and amateur sport and those involved in teaching pastoral theology. Providing a rich and informative source of knowledge and inspiration for practitioners, athletes, academics and those interested in the general relationship between sport and faith, contributors also address the provision of sports chaplaincy at sporting mega-events, including the Olympic Games. This much needed overview of chaplaincy provision in sport across a range of national and international contexts and settings, including both catholic and protestant perspectives, is the first collection of its kind to bring together leading scholars in sports chaplaincy with a view to providing professional accreditation and training amidst the fast-emerging field of sports theology.
Download or read book Christianity and Social Scientific Perspectives on Sport written by Tom Gibbons and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-06-29 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There has been a dramatic increase in academic research activity and practical initiatives on the topic of sports and Christianity, and its cultural significance during the past decade. The Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at York St John University, York, UK, hosted the Inaugural Global Congress on Sports and Christianity (IGCSC), 24-28th August 2016 in collaboration with the Bible Society at which there were 180 delegates from 22 countries in attendance. For the area of sports studies/the social scientific study of sport, there was a thematic strand at the congress titled ‘Christian sociological perspectives on sport’ from which a special edition of the journal Sport in Society partially emanated. This book is based upon this journal special edition. The papers selected for inclusion in the special edition were purposely eclectic in order to demonstrate the diversity of current research occurring in the area of Christianity and social scientific perspectives on sport. The goal was to bridge divisions between various social science disciplines and theology or religious studies, through varied, novel and interesting explorations of sport in its various forms. We hope this collection inspires further studies into this area. The chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue in Sport in Society.
Download or read book Playing for God written by Annie Blazer and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2015-07-24 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When sports ministry first emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, its founders imagined male celebrity athletes as powerful salespeople who could deliver a message of Christian strength: “If athletes can endorse shaving cream, razor blades, and cigarettes, surely they can endorse the Lord, too,” reasoned Fellowship of Christian Athletes founder Don McClanen. But combining evangelicalism and sport did much more than serve as an advertisement for religion: it gave athletes the opportunity to think about the embodied experiences of sport as a way to experience intimate connection with the divine. As sports ministry developed, it focused on individual religious experiences and downplayed celebrity sales power, opening the door for female Christian athletes to join and eventually dominate sports ministry. Today, women are the majority of participants in sports ministry in the United States. In Playing for God, Annie Blazer offers an exploration of the history and religious lives of Christian athletes, showing that evangelical engagement with popular culture can carry unintended consequences. When sport became an avenue for embodied worship, it forced a reckoning with evangelical teachings about the body. Female Christian athletes increasingly turned to their own bodies to understand their religious identity, and in so doing, came to question evangelical mainstays on gender and sexuality. What was once a male-dominated masculinist project of sports engagement became a female-dominated movement that challenged evangelical ideas on femininity, marriage hierarchy, and the sinfulness of homosexuality. Though evangelicalism has not changed sporting culture, for those involved in sports ministry, sport has changed evangelicalism.
Download or read book Christianity Race and Sport written by Jeffrey Scholes and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-05-30 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a rigorously researched introduction to the relationship between Christianity, race, and sport in the United States. Christianity, Race, and Sport examines how Protestant Christianity and race have interacted, often to the detriment of Black bodies, throughout the sporting world over the last century. Important sporting figures and case studies discussed include: the sanctification of baseball player Jackie Robinson; the domestication of Muhammad Ali and George Foreman; religious expressions of athletes in the NFL; treatment of African American tennis player Serena Williams; Colin Kaepernick and his prophetic voice. This accessible and conversational book is essential reading for undergraduate students approaching religion and race or religion and sport for the first time, as well as those working within the sociology of sport, sport studies, history of sport, or philosophy of sport.
