"Football is not a matter of life and death, it is more important than that."
‘I will Not Cease from Mental Fight’?: Sport and the Protestant Work Ethic
Return to the book list for this category.
Dominic Erdozain, The Bible in Transmission
(Sp. Ed., Sporting Life: Reflections on Sport, Culture and the Church), Spring 2012: 5-7. Full text available, see: http://www.biblesociety.org.uk/uploads/content/bible_in_transmission/files/2012_spring/BiT_Spring_2012_Erdozain.pdf
A very thought article which looks at how the protestant work ethic has influenced modern attitudes to sport. He argues that modern Christians when they play sport we often “approach it in ways that effectively reproduce the work ethic.. sports are pursued with an intensity that mirrors rather than balances the demands of the workplace”.
He sees the win-at-all-costs philosophy in some crucial respects they extending “the muscular Christian ethos that sport is the basis of character and character the basis of sport”.
He sees a danger in sport increasingly becoming work and ceasing to be sport or play. (Similar arguments can be found in Steven Overman’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Sport http://www.veritesport.org/index.php?page=bookreviewbytitle&byt=T&brid=161)
He calls for Christian engagement with sport, commenting: “A Christian approach to sport might be one that relativises its importance, without trivialising it” and “A playful approach to sport does not mean an uncompetitive one. It means that you recognise that the game is just a game, and that is its glory”.