God and the Goalposts

A Brief History of Sports, Religion, Politics, War and Art

Ori Z Soltes

• Publisher: Bartleby Press
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9780884003908
• Edition: 0
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Greek Ancient History
• Index: History

Crossing the goal line, with the football tucked safely in his arms, the NFL star falls on one knee, bows his head, crosses himself and utters a prayer of thanksgiving to God, giving one more example of the ever expanding connection between sports and religion. At least it seems to be expanding. The question is: was there truly a notable surge in that relationship between sports and religion. And if there has been a surge, is it unique in history, or merely part of an ongoing ebb and flow? This book, now in a revised edition, offers a concise yet detailed account of this multifaceted association —and its implications for the ongoing game (the ultimate sport!) of trying to understand what we humans are as a species. Sports is one among many areas where religion and its concerns have played a role, and the interweave between sports and religion is as old as sports and as continuous as religion. Contemporary instances are different from what one finds in Greek and Latin literature where gods are actively on the "playing field," and directly leads to the first athletic competitions The discussion of biblical "athletes" offers a different religious connotation: the stories of Samson are religious in part simply because they are biblical. The question of Islam and sports, or of Jewish success in the Olympics, or of how both Jews and Muslims manage to maintain aspects of their faiths when the athletic competitions in which they engage don't leave space for that—or of the attitude of Judaism or Islam or Christianity to sports and physical accomplishment in general—is diverse. The discussion of Native American sports with origins in religious ritual is different still. Moreover, "sports and religion" keeps intersecting—from different angles—sports and warfare, sports and politics, religion and politics, religion and warfare; and all these combinations intertwine aspects of art. It becomes clear that sport, in combination with religion is a major theme throughout the history of mankind.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface to the Revised Edition
• Preface
• Introduction: Religion, Art, Politics, War, and Sports
• Chapter One: Sports, Athletic Heroes, and God in the Shaping of Israelite History
• Chapter Two: From War Games to Funerary Games in Epic Greek Poetry: Warrior-Athletes in the Iliad
• Chapter Three: The Epic Continuum: From Odysseus to Aeneas
• Chapter Four: From Lyric to Tragic to Comic: Pindar’s Heroic Athletes and Their Poetic Successors
• Chapter Five: Gladiatorial Contests from the Pagan Era to the Early Christian Era
• Chapter Six: Sports and War in Medieval Christendom: From Jousting to Crusading for God
• Chapter Seven: Sports and Spirituality from the Ancient Near East to the Far East and Back
• Chapter Eight: Religion and Sports Within and Beyond the Muslim World
• Chapter Nine: Jews in Sports from Nahmanides in Barcelona to Mendoza in England
• Chapter Ten: Sports and Judaism Since Emancipation
• Chapter Eleven: America from the Maya to the Birth of “The National Pastime”
• Chapter Twelve: Twentieth-Century American Sports and its Intersection Among Immigration, Religion, and Race
• Chapter Thirteen: God on the Gridiron and Elsewhere: From Locker Room to Finish Line
• Epilogues: Sports, Religion, and Politics—from Old Visual Art to New Stars of the Pulpit and Screen
• Bibliography
• Index