Sport

Abstract

This chapter reviews the existing state of research on the social scientific study of religion and sport, and suggests avenues for future development of the field. It begins by briefly examining the history of sport, showing how its development reflects a pattern of societal-level secularization. It then notes how societal-level secularization affords many opportunities for innovation at the organizational-level and vitality at the individual-level. But religious organizations seeking to engage the world of sports rarely challenge its fundamentally secular structure and purpose. The organizational pattern, therefore, is one of engagement through accommodation. At the individual-level, macro-level social changes create a particular social environment within which individuals negotiate their involvement in both religion and sport. In some cases individuals make connections between these two spheres and in some cases they experience conflict between them. This lack of a uniform relationship between religion and sport facilitates thinking more broadly about other ways in which religion and sport come together in contemporary society, specifically as civil religion and through sports fandom. The chapter concludes by suggesting some future directions for the study of religion and sport which seek to cast a wider net than has been used in the past.