Baller 21

The Image of God in the Human Body // Essays on Christianity and Sports

by Chris Harvey on 09/30/09

While listening to a C.J. Mahaney message, “Don’t Waste Your Sports,” I noted an article that he referenced.

The article is entitled, “Created to Play: Thoughts on Play, Sport, and the Christian Life,” written by Erik Thoennes, Associate Professor at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University.

I searched for this article and discovered a collective book that it was published in — The Image of God in the Human Body: Essays on Christianity and Sports.

This book began as a project that came from a modest gathering of academics, sport practitioners and sport ministers at a Think-Tank — Lord of Sport: A Quest to Discover God’s Wisdom for Sport — which took place in March of 2005 in Dayton, Ohio.

A few words from the preface:

As the authors of this volume rightly note – and seek to correct – it is stunning that, despite rich reflections on aspects of culture such as the arts, commerce, heathcare, education, and technology, to this point the Christian tradition has largely failed to articulate a robust reflection on the other side of Athens, its Olympian side – the Athens of sport and games.

…not even the recent explosion of theological reflection on popular culture seems to be attentive to sport.

So where can we find sustained theological reflection on sport? I don’t mean ‘religious’ reflections by athletes – which are usually testimonials that simply instrumentalize sport as a means for sharing a message about a wholly other-worldly, disembodied “gospel.” The authors in this book are at a vanguard of much needed reflection on this central aspect of contemporary culture – and this aspect of the creational mandate.

While we can appreciate play as a feature of creation, is competition? Or how are we to think about sport in an era of its commodification and commercialization – when the other side of Athens is so closely wed to Wall Street? And what about when sport becomes religion? How can we think critically about idolatry of sports without lapsing into a reactionary pietism?

Surprisingly, up to this point, we lack a robust theology of sport. This book makes a bold move to change that.

Contents //
Chapter 1 – A Brief History of Christianity and Sport: Selected Highlights of a Puzzling Relationship (James A. Mathisen).
Chapter 2 – A Christian Perspective on Sport (Michael Wittmer).
Chapter 3 – The Ambiguity of Embodiment and Sport: Overcoming Theological Dichotomies (Hoschstetler, Hopsicker, and Kretchmar).
Chapter 4 – Created to Play: Thoughts on Play, Sport, and the Christian Life (Erik Thoennes).
Chapter 5 – Competition as Relationship: Sport as a Mutual Quest Towards Excellence (Stuart Weir).
Chapter 6 – Idols in the Stadium: Sport as an ‘Idol Factory’ (John White).
Chapter 7 – Sport as Spectacle and the Perversion of Play (Mark Hamilton).
Chapter 8 – Escaping the Gender Trap: Sport and the Equality of Christ (Donald Deardorff II and Julie Deardorff).
Chapter 9 – Redefining Human, Redefining Sport: The Imago Dei and Genetic Modification Technologies (Tracy Trothen).
Chapter 10 – Some Preliminary Thoughts on Philosophies of Sports Ministry and Their Literature (Ashley Null).
Chapter 11 – Reversing the Curse: Practicing the Presence and Presents of God in Sport (Valerie Gin).
Chapter 12 – Advancing the Kingdom: Shalom in Sport
Chapter 13 - Church and Sport (Graham Daniels and J. Stuart Weir)
Chapter 14 – “Finding the Right Place”: Professional Sport as a Christian Vocation (Ashley Null).
Chapter 15 – The Prophet of Copenhagen Conversing with Competitive Sport: Serving God and Man in Sport: A Divided Allegiance (Cindy White).

While these essays may be more in depth and academic in nature than some would prefer, this is exactly the content I have been searching for and thinking about.

The only negative, so far, is the cost. The cost to buy new or used starts at $100, even on Amazon! Thankfully, I found a copy in my local library. Check out www.worldcat.org to freely search for a copy at a location near you.