Christianity as public religion: a justification for using a Christian sociological approach for studying the social scientific aspects of sport

Abstract

The vast majority of social scientific studies of sport have been secular in nature and/or have tended to ignore the importance of studying the religious aspects of sport. In light of this, a recent study has sought to encourage sociologists of sport not to divorce the ‘religious’ and the ‘sacred’ from their studies. In response to this call, the goal of the current essay is to explore how the conception of Christianity as ‘public religion’ can be utilized to help justify the use of a Christian sociological approach for studying the social scientific aspects of sport. After making a case for Christianity as public religion, we conclude that many of the sociological issues inherent in modern sport are an indirect result of its increasing secularization and argue that this justifies the need for a Christian sociological approach. We encourage researchers to use the Bible, the tools of Christian theology and sociological concepts together, so to inform analyses of modern sport from a Christian perspective.

Notes

1. Examples of other journal special editions from the conference include: Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, the International Journal of the History of Sport and Practical Theology.

2. This section and the one following it draw upon the arguments made in Gibbons (2016) ‘Christianity as Public Religion in the Post-Secular twenty-first Century’

3. We refer here to the version of the text published in London in 1881 in this essay.

4. In the New Testament ‘Mammon’ is referred to as material wealth or greed, and is often personified as a false idol (see for instance Matt. 6: 19–21).