Christianity, Culture, and Sport: From Play to Virtue

Professor Clark Power on April 24, 2025 at Butterfield Country Club. "I was his delight day by day, Playing before him every moment, playing in his inhabited world, delighting in Adam’s offspring." Proverbs 8:30-32 (trans. Brown, 2012: 28-29) Drawing on Brown’s exegetical exploration of Wisdom’s paideia in the Book of Wisdom, Clark Power explores the relationship between Christianity and culture (following Remi Brague) with a focus on sports and more specifically youth sports. He argues that sports is play and as such fosters children’s development of the theological and cardinal virtues. In childhood as well as adulthood, sports should lead us to a transcendent joy that is rooted in freedom, love, and hope for the future of the human community.