1st Edition

Sport and Christianity Historical Perspectives

Edited By Hugh McLeod, Nils Martinius Justvik, Robert Hess Copyright 2020
    136 Pages
    by Routledge

    134 Pages
    by Routledge

    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.

    Series Editors' Foreword

    Mark Dyreson, Thierry Terret, Rob Hess

    Introduction: Sport and Christianity: Historical Perspectives < An Introduction

    Hugh McLeod, Nils Martinius Justvik, and Rob Hess

    1. Gymnastics, Physical Education, Sport, and Christianity in Germany

    Michael Kru¨ger

    2. A Sportful History of Christianity: The Case of Twentieth-Century Sweden

    Alexander Maurits and Martin Nykvist

    3. Cultural Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Modernization of Physical Education and Sport in China, 1840<1949

    Huijie Zhang, Fan Hong and Fuhua Huang

    4. Mormon Missionaries and the Emergence of Modern Argentine Sport, 1938<1943

    Ryan A. Davis

    5.‘Necessary Cessation from Toil and Work’: Young Christian Workers and the Question of Sport on Sundays in Post-War Melbourne

    Melissa Jean Walsh and Nicholas Thomas Shaw Marshall

    6.‘If God Be for Us, Who Can Be Against Us?’: Religion and Religiousness in Polish Football, 2008<2017

    Michal Mazurkiewicz

    Biography

    Hugh McLeod is Emeritus Professor of Church History at the University of Birmingham, UK.



    Nils Martinius Justvik is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Agder, Norway.



    Rob Hess is an Adjunct Associate Professor with the Institute for Sport and Health at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia.