Religion and Sports

WWhat if sports don’t just resemble religion—but actually shape identity, ritual, politics, and belief in ways that rival religion itself?

From raucous games of lacrosse in pre-Columbian North America to Tim Tebow’s gameday prayers, sports have long been used as instruments of social cohesion and to connect people to their gods.

This lecture will examine the close relationship between religion and sport, with special attention to examples drawn from modern North America. 

A popular paradigm, when bringing sport and religion into conversation with each other, is that sport is a religion. Sports can certainly seem religious in the way they create moments of awe and “collective effervescence,” necessitate ritual, have demi-gods and icons, and deep lore. But understanding sports-as-religion is only one way to interpret and understand the significance of sport as a medium of exchange between the overlapping influences of celebrity, national politics, religion, and the economy.

In this lecture we will cover how sports and religion intersect with topics like nationalism, gender, race, sexuality, identity formation, commercialism, mass-media, recreation, and labor. Key concepts from religious studies, like ritual, collective effervescence, theophany, and sacred space will be introduced to analyze key historical movements and organizations, such as muscular Christianity, the YMCA, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the Olympics, and more. Together we’ll delve deeper into questions like: How, where, and when do sports act religiously? What do sports and religion accomplish together that they cannot accomplish alone?

Ways to Learn