The Church and Sports: A History

In A Brief Theology of Sport Lincoln Harvey argues that throughout its history the church has often failed to think theologically about sports. That isn’t to say it hasn’t thought about sports, though. Over the centuries the church has oscillated between a complete rejection of sports to a blind/naive acceptance. Harvey identifies a (clashing) “chord with three notes” that has been consistently struck by the church in relation to sport throughout its history: * The church has been opposed to sport. Primarily because of sport’s long association with pagan religion and idolatry. Christians have been deeply suspicious of sports. * But history has proven that sport is unstoppably popular. Despite attempts to ban sports from the pulpits of preachers and thrones of the emperors, people continued to flock to sporting events. Something about sports makes it hard to give up.* So, the church has often attempted to use sport by setting it to serve the church’s own purpose, harnessing it for whatever end the church was interested in at the time (The Crusades being a good example). This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cameroncombs.substack.com