The Influence of the Protestant Ethic on Sport and Recreation

The book is valuable in setting the context of Puritan objections to sport. Overman suggests that "the Puritan's God was a judge and that everything was cast in terms of right and wrong" (Page 20).

If the Puritans developed a hostile attitude toward most sport and recreation in England, it was not "due to a negative view of physical exercise and training per se...for Puritans physical exercise constituted a duty to preserve health and strength and to make one fit for serving God". (Page 24). However, even if sports weren't inherently sinful, the precious hours spent at them could be used more constructively. (Page 26)

While the Puritans are long gone, their influence remains: "Contemporary Protestants betray their Puritan heritage. They remain analytical, technical, impersonal, legalistic, and with a strong interest in reform. This type is decisive, rational to a fault, a stickler for the truth, and manifests an overwrought concern for governing one's own conduct and that of others." (Page 23)

In the modern era there is also the concept of using sport for evangelism. "As sports continued to encroach upon traditional time for worship and service, many church leaders attempted to weld a link by sponsoring sports events under religious auspices and by bringing athletes into their church as missionaries to spread the word and recruiting new members" and "They [Evangelical churches] began to look upon sport as a positive good, an effective tool to promote religious goals" (Page 147). The reason for this, according to Overman, is pragmatic: "No person in American society, it would seem, has had a better platform deliver the message of Evangelical Christianity than the athlete." (Page 148)