An unholy alliance : the sacred and modern sports
"An Unholy Alliance offers a dissenting view to the claim by a growing number of scholars that sports are a new religion. The last few years have seen a spate of books that might be classified by a genre called "Sports Apologetics," that is, arguments defending or celebrating in one way or another the familiar and ongoing alliance in America between sports and religion." "In this book, Higgs and Braswell suggest that while sports may often be good things, they are not inherently divine. They do not focus on widespread abuse in sports as evidence for their counterargument. Rather, they question the use of mythological parallels from prehistory as justification for viewing sports as a religion."--Jacket
Print Book, English, ©2004
Mercer University Press, Macon, Ga., ©2004
xviii, 410 pages ; 23 cm
9780865549234, 9780865549562, 0865549230, 0865549567
56938104
Sports and Religion: Peanut Butter and Jelly or Oil and Water?
What's in a Name? Working Definitions of Sports and Religion
The Sacred and the Holy: Distinguishing the Indefinable
Wisdom and Strength: Two Faces of the Holy
The Religion of Sports and the Media: Marshall McLuhan among the Apologists
The Cross in the Coliseum: Sacred Ground and Battle Ground
Religion, Sports, and War: The Conflicted History of the Knight and the Shepherd
The Religion of Sports and That Old-time Religion: In the Steps of Mircea Eliade
Varieties of Mystical Experiences: Old and New
The Holy and the "Flow": Ultimacy Versus Intimacy
Ethics, Values, and Excellence: Testing the Spirits
The Statue of Zeus and Creation of Adam Athletic Art as Sacred and Holy
Humor and the Eternal Triangle: Mind, Sports, and Religion
The High Seriousness of the Religion of Sports: A Return to Polytheism?
: Apotheosis Versus Atonement
Appendix 1: Religious Dichotomies
Appendix 2: Textual Notes on Comparative Theology
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