From Season to Season : Sports as American Religion

by Price, Joseph L.

• ISBN13: 9780865546943
• ISBN10: 0865546940
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-02-01
• Publisher: Mercer Univ Pr

Summary

In From Season to Season: Sports as American Religion, nine scholars of religion and theology explore the relationship between religion and sports in American popular culture and the role of sports as religion.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Frevent Faith: Sports as Religion in America	3	(12)
Joseph L. Price
Sports and Religion in America
From Sabbath Proscriptions to Super Sunday Celebrations: Sports and Religion in America	15	(24)
Joseph L. Price
God and Games in Modern Culture	39	(10)
Lonnie D. Kliever
From Season to Season: The Rhythmic and Religious Significance of American Sports Seasons	49	(12)
Joseph L. Price
Baseball
The Pitcher's Mound as Cosmic Mountain: The Religious Significance of Baseball	61	(16)
Joseph L. Price
The Fetish and McGwire's Balls	77	(22)
Paul C. Johnson
Every Religion Needs a Martyr: The Role of Matty, Gehrig, and Clemente in the National Faith	99	(16)
Peter Williams
Football
Through the Eyes of Mircea Eliade: United States Football as a Religious Rite de Passage	115	(22)
Bonnie Miller-McLemore
The Super Bowl as Religious Festival	137	(4)
Joseph L. Price
American Sport as Folk Religion Examining a Test of Its Strength	141	(22)
James A. Mathisen
Basketball
Basketball's Abbot: Bob Knight and the Drive for Perfection	163	(8)
Lois Daly
The Final Four as Final Judgment: The Religious and Cultural Significance of the NCAA Basketball Championship	171	(14)
Joseph L. Price
Hockey and Wrestling
A Puckish Reflection on Religion in Canada	185	(18)
Tom Faulkner
Myth and Ritual in Professional Wrestling	203	(12)
Charles S. Adams
Conclusion
An American Apotheosis: Sports as Popular Religion	215
Joseph L. Price