"I jump into a sand pit for a living"
Saving Sport
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(Sport, society and spirituality), Kevin O’Gorman, The Columba Press, Dublin 2009. (272 pages including appendices)
An intellectual book with copious references but which is content to discuss the use of religious language in sport without making any real contribution to the quest for a theology of sport. Overall I found it disappointing.
The book promised much by describing itself as “A study of the relationship between the sport and Christian faith” and suggesting three distinct stages: Discovery, Discernment, Development. It continued talking of “a survey, both historical and contemporary, of the connections between the world(s) of sport and the witness of Christianity in the context of its community of belief (faith), understanding (theology) and worship (prayer)”. (Page 11).
However, all too often the author was satisfied with simply giving a superficial account of how religious language is used by the media to describe sport. For example the section “Redeeming sport” (Pages173-76) is just media references with no theology. Appendix A (Pages. 256 – 268) lists references to redemption, atonement or salvation in secular sports press headlines. And appendix B (269-71) gives a similar list of references to eschatology.
There are some useful quotes from various popes, such as: “Among the various human activities is sport, itself awaiting to be illuminated by God through Christ so that the values it expresses are purified and elevated both at the individual and collective level” Pope Benedict (Page 84)
The book contains a number of useful quotes that I have not encountered before, such as:
“Asked about captain Lius Figo receiving a yellow card for headbutting an opponent, he [Luiz Felipe Scolari] replied by citing the provocation his skipper had been subjected to and said: “Jesus Christ said we should turn the other cheek, but Figo’s not Jesus Christ”.’ (Page 114)
‘it matters a great deal who is going to win, but not at all who won’ Willie John McBride (Page 117)
God would have had more important things on his hands than whether or not I was winning an Open’ Jean van der Velde on losing the Open at Carnoustie, Page 149
“The futility and frustration of eternally finding that a putt rolls only to the edge of the cup, of a ball that always stops on the goal line, of shots that never become scores, to say nothing of relentless rows and fights on the field, are in intimations of immortality in a sporting hell”. Sport as an adaptation of Sisyphus Page 168
Pages 208-9 gives an interesting account of Roman Catholics bishops in Ireland expressing concern at the spread of Sunday sport.