Embodiment, Sport and Spiritual Traditions

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past several decades, many scholars of religion have begun to turn their attention to the study of “lived religion”, which is manifested in the embodied experiences and practices of ordinary people in everyday life. There was a parallel development in roughly the same period in the development of the academic discipline of spirituality, where scholars study the embodied “lived experiences” of faith using an interdisciplinary method. These developments have been influenced by broader trends in intellectual history, such as the emergence of the area known as ‘social history’, a turn to the study of embodied practices in sociology, and the interest of phenomenologists in consideration of first person, embodying lived experiences in all their complexity. Feminist scholars have also shifted their attention to the lived experiences and interpretations of girls and women in daily life, which helps to illuminate how social systems impact women and marginalized persons more broadly.

According to N. Ammerman, the study of lived religion is similar to the study of other lived experiences or social practices, but is also distinctive in that it has a spiritual dimension, where people directly or indirectly encounter the presence of “a reality beyond the ordinary” (Ammerman 2021, p. 20). This reality is variously described as sacred, transcendent, or otherworldly, but is experienced in the midst of everyday life. It can be experienced in the lives of individual persons and in institutions. For Ammerman, this spiritual dimension is the focus of the study of lived religion, to which the scholar gains access via critical attention to phenomena such as embodiment, emotions, esthetics, morality, and narrative.

Scholars of spirituality also have an interest in attending to embodied practices of ordinary people in everyday life. Christian theologians have pointed out that theology and spirituality had become separated as we moved into the modern period, whereas in earlier periods the two were merely distinguished. Stephen Toulmin provides an account of how Catholic and Protestant theology became overly abstract and moved away from lived, bodily experiences of faith in the wake of the religious wars of the 17th century. Catholic historian John O’Malley sees this as a move away from a way of life that the term “Christianitas” captured in the later medieval period, to the “doctrinalization of Christianity” (see O’Malley 1998). The philosopher Charles Taylor points out that whereas in earlier periods bodily engagement with the world was regarded as an important avenue to truth or to spiritual experience, as the elite led religious reform movements and the thought of Descartes, there was a “steady disembodying of spiritual life” so that it “lies more and more ‘in the head’” (Taylor 2007, p. 771).

For scholars who study spirituality, the term has to do with phenomena such as the discovery of meaning and purpose in one’s life; the capacity for transcendence, or recognizing that there is more to reality than what can be seen and touched; experiences of self-transcendence or of being part of something larger than oneself; and a way of life that is made up of practices, behaviours, rituals, and attitudes that become regular or constant. For these scholars, spirituality has to do with the whole of life and with the deepest questions. Even self-transcendence is toward one’s ‘ultimate concern’. Scholars differ on what the relationship between spirituality and theology should be. For some, theology plays a more normative role, providing spirituality with fundamental principles and guidelines within which to operate. For others, theology is not normative but can be helpful to turn to because, for example, it can help us to understand the lived experiences of persons and communities when we understand their images of God (see Perrin 2007, pp. 18–20; Schneiders 1989, pp. 681–684)

Over the past several decades, scholars of religion and theologians began to turn their attention to sport in this broader context. This makes a great deal of sense, given that sports are embodied practices of ordinary people in daily life. They are a reminder of our shared humanity, in that they are present in all societies about which we have recorded information, although in diverse ways and with unequal access. They also have the capacity to bring together people from different cultural, national, and religious backgrounds. Sports practices have also intersected with religious and spiritual traditions in diverse ways in different historical contexts. At times, they intersect with or are influenced by spiritual practices, such as meditation, fasting (during Ramadan or Lent, for example), or other forms of ritual and prayer. Institutions, such as schools or civic agencies that sponsor and support sports practices, are also at times informed by religious or spiritual values that impact the practices.

Inspired by the broader trends outlined above in the study of religion and theology and in acdemia more generally, this Special Issue focuses on the spiritual dimension of the embodied, lived experiences of sports. The focus might be on the spiritual dimension of a person’s or a team’s experiences of playing sports; on how the spiritual values of an institution that sponsors sport practices, such as a mosque, temple, church, school, or other civic organization, influence these practices; or on broader cultural contexts that are influenced by religious or spiritual values and impact the lived experience of sport, such as the religious festivals that were the setting for the ancient Olympic games, the spiritual milieu of traditional indigenous games, the influence of wu-wei in Confucian and Taoist cultural contexts on sport, or the Protestant ethic and its influence on sport and recreation.

While not exhaustive, some examples of approaches and topics that could be written about include the following:

• A historical approach that considers the significance of the fact that the Olympics or other panhellenic games in Greece were carried out in the context of religious festivals.
• A historical approach that considers the significance of the fact that sport in indigenous cultures took place in a context within which the ‘spiritual’ permeated all aspects of life.
• The way sport practices are situated within a broader institutional framework informed by spiritual values, such as a mosque, temple or synagogue, parish or school (e.g., Eton, BYU).
• The place of spiritual practices in sports, such as meditation; Mass or chapel services before games; fasting, Ramadan and sport.
• Contemporary ethnographic or psychological studies of participants in sport that focus on the spiritual dimension.
• The influence of philosophical traditions (e.g., mechanist or phenomenological) on the lived experiences of embodiment in sport and their positive and/or negative implications for the spiritual dimension of life.
• The connection of the play element of sport to spirituality.
• The influence of a spiritual tradition of athlete(s) on their values and approach to sports and/or their engagement with social issues.
• The embodied, lived experiences of girls and women in sports and their connection to spirituality.
• How spiritual traditions have shaped religious or civic institutions’ attitudes with regard to girls and women playing sports.
• A consideration of the ways that social categories such as race/ethnicity, socio-economic status, age, ability, or sexuality intersect with the spiritual dimension of embodied, lived experiences of sport.
• Influence of spiritual traditions on founders of sports organizations, such as the YMCA, YWCA, Gaelic Athletic Association.
• Influence of spiritual traditions on persons or sports programmes that make use of sport to foster understanding between people, or interreligious dialogue.
• How a particular religious tradition understands the potential spiritual significance of sports, with attention to the founder (where appropriate), sacred texts, history, philosophical, and/or theological traditions.

In recent years, scholars of religion have spent a fair amount of time writing about whether sport can be considered a religion, or about the functions sports serve in society. There is a tendency in some popular expressions of Christianity to see sport merely as a ‘tool’ for evangelization. This Special Issue will contribute to the field of religion and sport by directing our attention in a more sustained way to the embodied, lived experiences of sport themselves and reflecting on the ways these intersect with spiritual values and traditions. This Special Issue also offers an opportunity for dialogue between religious studies scholars and scholars of spirituality, who use different methodologies to study sport. Finally, it will advance the academic study of sport more generally, given that it is in many historical contexts and in diverse methods of our own time undeniable that participants experience and understand sport practices to have a spiritual dimension. This Special Issue will further our understanding of this dimension.

References:

1. Ammerman, Nancy. 2021. Studying Lived Religion. New York: NYU University Press, p. 20.
2. O’Malley, John W. 1998. “How about some Christianitas?” BTI [Boston Theological Institute] Newsletter XXVII, no. 18 (February 4).
3. Taylor, Charles. 2007. A Secular Age. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, p. 771.
4. Perrin, David. 2007. Studying Christian Spirituality. New York: Routledge, pp. 18-20.
5. Schneiders, Sandra. 1989. “Spirituality in the Academy.” Theological Studies, pp. 681-684.

Dr. Patrick Kelly, SJ
Guest Editor

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• lived religion
• embodiment
• play
• sport
• spirituality