If I had to choose between my wife and my putter... well, I’d miss her.
Sport And Spirituality
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edited Gordon Preece and Ron Hess, ATF Press, Adelaide. No date (was 2010)
The dilemma is summed up: “The alleged clash between Jenny and Eric Liddell [Chariots of Fire] is emblematic of that between those who see sport as either unspiritual or redeemable as a utilitarian means to spiritual ends, for example, evangelism (Jenny) and those who see sport as an expression of spirituality, as intrinsically good in God’s eyes”( Page 6,7)
Chapter 1 Sphere of sweat - concerns the development of the study of sport and sports history and the critical reaction to taking sport seriously as an academic discipline. He reviews Hoffman (1992). Malinowski, Watson/Nesti - sadly not the more recent Image of God in a human body.
Chapter 2 ‘When 1 Run I Feel God’s Pleasure’: Towards A Protestant Play Ethic, develops the words attributed to Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire.
“Liddell’s alleged statement is not only a magnificent moment in film, but in theology. He provides a stimulus for a long-overdue Protestant Play Ethic” Page 25
And “So, when he ran and won the 400 metres world record time, he presumably ‘felt God’s pleasure’, though winning was not necessary. God delights in humans enjoying and fulfilling their created nature and gifts. The means echo the end and there is mutual divine and human pleasure.” Page 28
I enjoyed the statement: “ What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and to enjoy him for ever. Excellent. Shame the writer had not stopped there. If he had done, people would have enjoyed God a lot earlier!” (page 32
“This paper has used the filmic Eric Liddell’s quotation ‘When I run, I feel God’s pleasure’, as a stepping-stone to a sporting theology of pleasure as ‘enjoying God’”. Page 48
Chapter 3 – Victor Pfitzner We are the champions is a summary of Greek, OT, Pauline and early church sport.
The final sentence is: “Meanwhile we will thank God for games, admire the champions, and enjoy our sports whether as competitors or as supporters in the stand or on the couch—without, hopefully, falling into the trap of making sport our idol”. Page 64
Chapter 4 Sport, Femininity and the promises of the theology of the body suggests that “academic research (and also popular culture) in the past twenty years or so regarding ‘femininity and sport’ has rarely included a Christian philosophical rendering of these issues”. Page 65
There is an interesting attempt to define the concept of Marian sport (Page 90)
Chapter 5 Sport, Sailing and Human spirituality deals with Spirituality not Christianity
Chapter 6 The call of the game includes an interesting reflection of role of referee