Sport and Christianity: Historical Perspectives

Sport and Christianity examines sport and Christianity from a variety of historical perspectives, with the main focus on the period from the nineteenth to the early twenty-first centuries.

The book is not limited to a narrow definition of Christianity, but rather encompasses a wide range of denominations, related philosophies and viewpoints. The contributors are international, and the geographical range of their chapters is equally wide, extending, for example, from China to Argentina, and from Australia to Poland. Some chapters focus on a single sport such as gymnastics, soccer or Australian Rules football, while others look at modern sports more generally. Different methodological and theoretical approaches have been adopted, as contributors enter the debates on, for example, cultural imperialism, gender, changing Christian attitudes to leisure, or the intersection between religion, politics and sport.

Demonstrating the many-sided significance of the relationship between Christianity and Sport, this book is ideal for scholars of Sport History and Christianity. This book was originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of the History of Sport.