"there has only ever been one perfect man, the Lord Jesus, and we killed him. I only missed a putt."
Spirituality of Sport
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Spirituality of Sport - Balancing body and soul, Susan Saint Sing, St Antony Messenger Press, Cincinnati, Ohio 2004 ISBN 0-86716-516-2 (137 pages)
The message of this book is well summed up in the quote on page 1 from George Sheehan Page - "Religious experience, you see, is too important to he confined to church".
The book is essentially an account of a life in sport with reflections on the spiritual dimension. Susan Saint Sing was a runner who suffered a serious injury and then became a rowing cox.
Sing writes as a Roman Catholic and often finds parallels between her sporting and religious experiences. Foe me the lack of reference to Scripture was striking.
She reflects on play as part of the nature of God "I believe the child at play is in touch with the purest essence of the energy of God". (Page 5) and "The fact that all cultures play games, to me as a Christian, is logical! It tells that the very nature of God is universal. The smallest remnant of what play is, that smallest seed that is still seed, that is play - that is what sparks, promotes, drives our joy of God. God is the essence of joy. And we seek joy in play". (Page 110)
Her interpretation of sport has arguably, at times, more to do with spirituality than Biblical Christianity - note the book title. Examples include:
"Body and soul is a metaphor acknowledging the spiritual. The experience of body and soul is but one sequence, one path in that plan for us to live as Christ lived and to glorify God as he glorified God, for the ultimate purpose of being God to one another." Page 14
"The trilogy of judgment (competition), crucifixion (ultimate win/lose situation) and resurrection (back in to practice and training again, over and over, season after season) is the basic rhythm of an athlete's approach to life, to a season, to a career, to a game". Page 109
In sport, I see beautiful movement and beautiful body as living sculpture - classic Greek-like, a reflection of the resurrected being - the ultimate prayer - Calvary". (Page 64)
"This is the moment of grace, of knowing with indelible recognition the fruit of faith, that something greater does exist. The assurance we can run a marathon, the marathon of every day life, and when we stagger across the line there is someone, something benevolent, waiting". (Page 25)
I enjoyed reading the book but am not sure that it took my thinking much further.