"Lord, I don't ask that I should win, but please, please don't let me finish behind Akabusi."
Well played
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Michael Shafer, Eugene, Pickwick (Wipf and Stock), 2015. ISBN 978-1-4982-0524-5
Well played - A Christian Theology of sport and the ethics of doping.Michael Shafer, whose book started off life as a PhD thesis, (Click to read my review of the thesis ) states that his goal is to “challenge Christian athletes and spectators to gain a richer understanding about their faith offers formative principles to guide their attitudes and behaviors as well as to provide spiritually meaningful reasons for participating in sport.
With regard to his Christian theology of sport, I found a lot that I agreed with. I resonate with statements like: “we must approach issues in sport from a spirit of gratitude and admiration of the One who created the gift of sport and also has redeemed creation through Christ”. and seeing “sport as a God-created gift”.
How can I criticize the amount someone has read when he quotes me three times – but I have to. There was an uncritical over-reliance on Shirl Hoffman’s Good Game. I wonder if he has read John White’s* excellent critique of Hoffman. When he states “Sport is everywhere. Which is why it is interesting that one is not likely to find many Christian theological treatments of sport”, I am left wondered how familiar he is with the field. There is no reference to the two most important book in the field The Image of God in the Human Body, edited by Donald Deardorff II and John White, Edwin Mellen, 2008 and Sports and Christianity (Historical and Contemporary Perspectives), Nick J Watson and Andrew Parker, New York, Routledge, 2012. ISBN 978-0-415-89922-2.
In fact of the top 20 books listed on my website only two are referred to.
The summary of the arguments surrounding the ethics of doping is excellent – raising and evaluating arguments on both sides.
His argues that players have an obligation to admit it when they break a rule or touch the ball which the officials fail to see it. I found this section rather shallow in compassion with, for example Ed Smith’s** writing on the subject and his insights into the norms of different sports. Again, it is probably easier to play with this inherent honesty at the recreational level than in elite level.
The book is a welcome addition to the literature on the theology of sport and makes a unique contribution by applying theological reflections to issues of doping at a time when the world of sport is probably more in need of a Christian voice than ever before.
*The Enduring Problem of Dualism: Shirl Hoffman’s Good Game: John White, Christianity and the Culture of Sports, Implicit Religion, 2012, 15, 2:]
**What Sport Tells Us About life, Ed Smith, Penguin, 2009