Nick J. Watson

Theology, ethics and transcendence in sports

This book provides an inter-disciplinary examination of the relationship between sport, spirituality and religion. It covers a wide-range of topics, such as prayer and sport, religious and spiritual perspectives on athletic identity and ‘flow’ in sport, theological analysis of genetic performance enhancement technologies, sectarianism in Scottish football, a spiritual understanding of sport psychology consultancy in English premiership soccer and how Zen may be useful in sports performance and participation. As modern sport is often intertwined with commercial and political agendas, this book also provides an important corrective to the “win at all costs” culture of modern sport, which cannot always be fully understood through secular ethical inquiry. This is a unique and important addition to the current literature for a wide-range of fields including theology and religious studies, psychology, health studies, ethics and sports studies.

Special Olympians as a “Prophetic Sign” to the Modern Sporting Babel

Drawing on the work of Jean Vanier, Stanley Hauerwas, Amos Yong, and Wolf Wolfsenberger, I will examine how sportspersons with disabilities, especially intellectual disabilities, and the “movement” that represents them, the Special Olympics, are one prophetic sign to the multi-billion dollar business of sport, which, it has been argued is a major edifice in the modern “Tower of Babel” alongside other cultural idols, such as scientism, healthism, intellectualism, unhealthy perfectionism, commercialism, and materialism. In an extended conclusion, I identify areas within disability sport that may benefit from further theological reflection and highlight current church and para-church initiatives that seek to raise awareness and affect change in this area. It is my hope that this will encourage scholars and empirical researchers from sports studies and theology alike to take this discussion forward.

Researching Religion, Disability, and Sport: Reflections and Possibilities

As part of broader debates surrounding the relevance and applicability of qualitative research methods and methodologies within the context of Practical Theology, the present essay addresses the status of qualitative research within the area of religion, disability and sport. In so doing, the essay further encourages the use of empirical research within the orbits of Practical Theology while at the same time challenging current assumptions regarding the scope and remit of the empirical methods and methodologies that are commonly endorsed within the subdiscipline. The essay concludes by suggesting that the area of religion, disability and sport should be seen as an emerging subdisciplinary field and one to which a combination of both qualitative and quantitative research methods may be suited.

Sports, religion and disability

This ground-breaking book provides a fascinating insight into the relationship between sports (and leisure), religion and disability. In the shadow of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, at which athletes that were both able-bodied and disabled, provided an extravaganza of sporting excellence and drama, this text is a timely and important synthesis of ideas that have emerged in two previously distinct areas of research: (i) ‘disability sport’ and (ii) the ‘theology of disability’. Many of the elite athletes at this global sporting mega-event often explicitly displayed their religious beliefs, and in turn their importance in the context of sport, by observing different religious rituals, and or, utilising the multi-faith sports chaplaincy service. This raises a whole range of unanswered questions with regard to the intersections between sports, religion and disability, which to-date has been under- researched. Examples of subjects addressed in this text include: elite physical disability sport--Paralympics; intellectual disability sport--Special Olympics; reflections on the illness narrative of the cyclist Lance Armstrong through the lens of the theology of ‘radical orthodoxy’; the application of biblical athletic metaphors in understanding modern conceptions of disability sport; the role of sport and spirituality in the rehabilitation of injured British Military personnel, and; the importance of sports and leisure in L’Arche communities. This book begins a critical conversation on these topics, and many others, for both researchers and practitioners.

From Team Hoyt to I'll Push You: An Embodied Prophetic Message

ABSTRACT The authors explore stories of people with disabilities in sport settings that do more than inspire: they indicate how all people respond to the need and desire for both play and challenge. In 2014, Justin Skeesuck, with no use of his arms or legs, completed the 500-mile Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, pushed by his best friend Patrick Gray. This duo followed the 40-year-old legacy of Dick and Rick Hoyt, who have together completed over 1,000 endurance races, with Dick pushing and pulling his quadriplegic son Rick. Understanding play as fundamental to human life regardless of disability, these examples take the form of sport and extreme physical challenge. Through their fully embodied participation, Justin and Rick display fundamental anthropological and theological characteristics. Their disability sport stories illustrate not only their own personal determination to overcome obstacles, but also a prophetic witness to the true shape of human courage, self-sacrifice, and love, so easily missed due to the societal bias against those with disabilities.

Radical Orthodoxy and the Emergence of Spiritual Hero-Athletes: Examining Lance Armstrong's “Illness” Narrative

This essay examines how stories of overcoming illness are important components of popular narratives, media representations, and cultural understandings surrounding American hero–athletes such as Lance Armstrong and his portrayal as a cancer survivor. Understood through the theology of radical orthodoxy, Armstrongs experience with cancer put him at the center of the global effort to fight cancer and, in turn, he arguably became a figure imbued with latent spiritualistic themes. This essay identifies, offers examples of, and critiques how illness narratives lend spiritual attractiveness to hero-athletes. The theory of radical orthodoxy, as presented in the writings of scholars such as Graham Ward and John Milbank, will be utilized to examine the hero-athlete, Armstrong. As Ward (2000, p. 214) states, hero-athletes, such as Armstrong, are examples of angelic hosts who “re-enchant” the world with a “theological imaginary.” In conclusion, while Armstrongs athletic accomplishments, illness, recovery, and subsequent charity work through the Livestrong Foundation may have some spiritually and religiously significant “imagery” with regard to legitimizing the “hero–athlete” rhetoric in the contemporary western sport context, when gazing through the lens of radical orthodoxy these activities are largely “spiritually empty” and “idolatrous in nature,”

Global perspectives on sports and Christianity.

This book provides a major contribution to the religious studies and theological study and understanding of sport. It explores the dialectical relationship between sports and Christianity across diverse global cultures, extending beyond a western centric perspective of Christianity. The volume contains contributions from leading experts within the field to provide ethnographic, theoretical and theological reflections on sport in Africa, Australasia, Asia and Europe. The chapters also explore the secularisation thesis and western sports and examine violent sports such as boxing and Mixed Martial Arts from a Christian standpoint, as well as reflecting on sporting celebrity and the theology of disability sport.

Introduction for Journal of Disability & Religion Special Issue: Theology, Disability and Sport: Reflections on Physical and Intellectual Impairment and Well-Being

One of the most touching scenes in Jim Sheridan’s Oscar-winning film My Left Foot features a penalty kick in a street game of soccer. The film tells the story of the Dublin artist Christy Brown, who was born with cerebral palsy in 1932. Brown grew up in working-class Dublin, fully accepted and integrated into the life of the neighbourhood around him. As a teenager, he was included in the hard-fought games of football played out in the laneways around his house, goalkeeping effectively while lying on the ground. In this particular scene, playing against some boys who do not know Christy well, there is derision and mocking as he is carried forward to take a penalty kick. The opposing keeper is scornful of the threat posed by this severely disabled man, who then promptly places the ball skillfully beyond his reach with the use of his famous left foot. The prejudice that perceives an incongruity between disability and displays of sporting competence was painfully laid bare for that goalkeeper, left to defend his performance against his angry teammates while Christy is warmly celebrated by his companions. In recent years we have seen an increase in interest from theologians thinking about disability (for example: Brock & Swinton, Eiesland, and Yong) and about sport (for example: Ellis, Harvey and Hoffman). This exploration was advanced at the recent Inaugural Global Congress on Sports and Christianity (IGCSC) (2016, 24-28 August, York St John University, UK), which featured a thematic strand on this topic, from which many of these papers originated. The intersection between sport and disability is a fertile one, as demonstrated by this suggestive scene in Sheridan’s film. The disabled athlete challenges the preconceived notions and implicit biases of wider society. The world of disability sport challenges the excesses and decadence of wider sporting society. And the consideration of play in the light of disability illuminates many explicitly theological questions, as evidenced by the articles here collected. In The Culture of Sport, Bodies of Desire, and the Body of Christ, Benjamin S. Wall draws on the work of the French sociologist and theologian Jacques Ellul to expose the ableist biases functioning within the sporting imagination. As Wall conceives it, much of the recent Christian embrace of sporting culture can be accused of the conformity which Ellul describes as the “conversion of Christians to the

“Celebration” as the Spiritual Expression of Leisure and Sport: Reflections on the L’Arche Tradition and the Special Olympics

The provision of leisure and sport for persons with disabilities is an integral part of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006, article 30), and in turn, these activities can positively contribute to the physical, emotional and spiritual lives of those with physical and/or intellectual disabilities (Heintzman, this issue; Patterson & Pegg, 2009). Based on this premise, we argue that the activities of leisure and sport (especially the Special Olympics) offer those with disabilities in L’Arche communities—an international federation of communities founded in the mid-1960s by the French Canadian, Jean Vanier—a vehicle for spiritual expression through “celebration.” By way of interdisciplinary discussion, we explore the diverse and rich meanings of celebration within the context of leisure and sport, with specific reference to embodied experiences, such as fun, joy, belonging, festivity, laughter and play, as understood in the writings of the founder of L’Arche, Jean Vanier, the Catholic philosopher, Joseph Pieper, and scholars from a range of disciplines. In conclusion, we suggest that the experience of celebration through leisure and sport participation (especially via the Special Olympics) is an invaluable and understated source of meaning and hope for those with disabilities within L’Arche communities, and beyond.

Chesterton on Play, Work, Paradox, and Christian Orthodoxy

Abstract In this essay we attempt to accomplish two things related to the work of G.K. Chesterton. The first is to use one of his favorite ploys to articulate the nature of play. We discuss several paradoxical characteristics of play and attempt to show how seemingly contradictory features actually help us to understand play’s allure and other values. We introduce the second topic of theological analyses of work and play with a review of the Christian literature on these subjects. We then employ Chesterton’s paradoxical theology to see how these two aspects of living might come to life and how people of faith should experience them.