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Introduction-SportandReligion
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combiningphysicalandChristianspiritualdevelopment.Teauthor
presentsawidevarietyofitsactivities,suchasprovidingathleticfacili-
tiesorhumanitarianwork.Teanalysiscomprisesthreecountries:Te
UnitedKingdom,TeUnitedStates,andPoland,which,hopefully,lets
demonstratetheexpansionofthemovementandshowsitinabroader
perspective.
Althoughrecently-asithasbeenmentioned-thefineinterplayof
religionwithsocial,political,andeconomicforceshasbeenapopular
topicofstudyamongsociologistsandreligionscholars,therelationship
betweenreligionandsporthasreceivedfarlessattention(althoughthe
situationisgraduallychangingforthebetter).Tismaybeattributedin
largeparttothegeneralneglectofsportasatopicofscholarlyinquiry
bythoseinthetraditionaldisciplines5.
Yet,alreadyinthe1970sthereexistedthefieldofstudyknownas
religionandsports.AgroupofscholarssuchasMichaelNovak,Shirl
Hofman,CharlesPrebish,AndrewCooperorJosephPriceanalyzed
thewayssportsresembledreligion.Someofthem,likePrebish,wentso
farastodefinesportsasanewformofreligion.Itemploys,inPrebish’s
opinion,thesametermsaseachreligion,namely:aformalseriesof
publicandprivaterituals,engagement,devotion,discipline,adoration,
anexperienceoftheultimate(eternity),communion.Wemayusehere
thetermcommunia,communitas,introducedbyanthropologistVictor
Turner,which,inthecaseofsport,iscollectiveeuphoria:faith,temple,
chants,coronation,sacralization.Bothsportandtraditionalreligions
havetheirlegendsandmythswhichprovidethemwithabroaderper-
spective-notreallyhistorical,butalittlemisty,inwhichthehistorical
truthmixeswiththealleged,notfullyconfirmed,piecesofinformation.
Asforlegendaryheroes,theseareexamplestobefollowed,heroesof
culture,realarchetypalmodelsforthenextgenerationsofbelievers6.
5
S.J.Hofman,Preface[in:]:SJ.Hofman(ed.),SportandReligion,HumanKinetics,
Champaign,Illinois1992,p.vii.Tegradualdevelopmentofsocialorhumanisticre-
flectiononsporthasbeendescribedbyJerzyKosiewicz.See:J.Kosiewicz,SocialSciences
ofSport:NaturalandHumanisticDeterminants[in:]J.Kosiewicz,K.Obodyński(eds.),
SocialSciencesofSport-AssumptionsandPerspectives,UniversityofRzeszów,Rzeszów-
Warszawa2013,p.3.
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Ch.S.Prebish,uHeavenlyFather,DivineGoalie”:SportandReligion[in:]:S.J.Hofman
(ed.),SportandReligion,HumanKinetics,Champaign,Illinois1992,pp.43-53.