I played college football at Auburn University. I coached Division I college football for 13 years and was a collegiate sports chaplain for 6 years. My entire adult life has been at the intersection of faith and sport. Yet I’ve found few resources that carefully study the relationship between athletics, culture, and spirituality in the United States.
In The Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big-Time Sports, Paul Emory Putz fills this gap. His groundbreaking survey shows how sports, religion, and politics converge to influence American life and culture. No part of American life is untouched by religion—especially Protestant Christianity—and sports. “Sportianity” is the wedding of sports and Christianity. It has had both positive and negative influences on many sociopolitical movements of the past century. Putz sets out to show how the Christian athlete movement “shaped the development of American institutions and ideologies” (3).
The Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big-Time Sports
Paul Emory Putz
The Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big-Time Sports
Paul Emory Putz
The Spirit of the Game offers a sweeping history of the Christian athlete movement in the United States. Beginning in the 1920s, American Protestants sensed that sports were becoming a rival for Americans’ devotion, so they sought to carve out a home for religion within big-time sports. Their success was remarkable. By the end of the twentieth century they had created a thriving religious subculture that provides spiritual support for coaches and athletes while also recruiting successful sports stars to promote an evangelical Protestant version of the Christian faith and the American story. The Spirit of the Game tells the story of this remarkable movement and its impact on American religion—and America’s religion of sports.
More than Sports
The Spirit of the Game shows how important sports has been within American culture, especially for issues like racial reconciliation. Putz highlights the work of John M. Perkins, whose three R’s of community development––relocation, reconciliation, and redistribution––have inspired Christians to fight poverty and pursue racial justice.
I first encountered Perkins’s work more than 20 years ago as an intern for the Athletes in Action’s Los Angeles Urban Project. His With Justice for All was required reading. As Putz notes, the Urban Project “became arguably the most substantial racial justice initiative developed by a sports ministry organization” (201). That experience changed the way I understood my vocation and became the foundation for my doctoral research. There was always more than just competition at play in sports.
There was always more than just competition at play in sports.
Still, some people argue the periodic political discussions by ESPN pundits shouldn’t be included in athletics. The larger culture demands a clear demarcation between sports and politics. For many people, athlete protests like Colin Kaepernick taking a knee during the national anthem are part of a novel trend. Yet Putz shows that within the Christian athlete movement, there has been and continues to be a belief “that Christian coaches and athletes can and should use their platform within sports to influence and shape the direction of American life” (207).
Social Constraints
Christian coaches, athletes, and administrators have missed opportunities to lead the nation on issues of racial unity. And yet, some Christians did lead on such issues. Branch Rickey, for example, was the Dodgers general manager who signed Jackie Robinson as the first black player in Major League Baseball. In 1931, Rickey told an interviewer, “I want to live the ideals of Christ every day, in business and on the athletic field” (206). Tragically, however, most Christians within sport were content to maintain a racialized hierarchy, the culture’s accepted status quo.
As black athletes took prominent positions on the field throughout the 20th century, it created tension that led to faithful activism. Some Christian athletes felt compelled to speak to the societal ills that affected them and their community. Yet speaking out about hotly debated issues always carries risk.
For example, in 2020, when racial tensions rose, the donor-dependent nature of campus sports ministries made it difficult for leaders to offer much beyond vague assertions that the gospel affects all areas of life. It’s hard to be clear amid controversy when your livelihood is at stake. The structures of the Christian athlete movement often reward staying in the middle of the road.
Theological Ambiguity
Similarly, applying the gospel to all areas of life requires theological clarity that many sports ministries lack. They typically espouse “an optimistic, big-tent Protestantism” rather than “emphasiz[ing] deep commitments to particular points of doctrine” (4). The attractional nature of sports ministries encourages an emphasis on success rather than doctrinal precision.
As a result, many sports ministries treat Christianity as a performance enhancer to maximize athletic and coaching potential. Success on the playing field is often a litmus test for spiritual maturity. Evangelistic platforms are offered to those who perform well. Simply put, no one wants to hear the gospel proclaimed by athletes and coaches who aren’t winners. But losing can be a sanctifying gift from God. A sports ministry culture that doesn’t provide a robust theology of suffering cannot help athletes understand God’s redemptive work in all aspects of life.
Nevertheless, a minority of leaders in the Christian athlete movement see sports primarily as a means to worship Christ. If all of life is worship, then how we train, compete, and live as coaches and athletes should point to God’s glory in all our endeavors. This approach is much healthier, but it remains less popular, largely because of the cultural cachet that comes from success.
Challenging Future
At their best, Christians have attempted to introduce the gospel into our sports institutions for evangelism and to encourage societal improvement. And yet, as Putz argues, “The challenge for the [Christian athletic] movement and its organizations, when faced with growing divides and diversity, is this: Whose Christianity? And whose America?” (206). Navigating Christianity with diverse theological, ethnic, cultural, and political identities is challenging for “Sportianity.”
If all of life is worship, then how we train, compete, and live as coaches and athletes should point to God’s glory.
Yet Christians involved in sports should have the courage to defy the cultural moment. For athletes and coaches who make their living in the public eye, sometimes those decisions come at a high cost. But sometimes making the right decision comes with substantial benefits that extend beyond the individual athlete. This is how we can show that the gospel does, indeed, touch every area of life.
Some people mentioned in The Spirit of the Game are friends who influenced my life and spiritual formation. Many of the ministries mentioned inform how I think about life and ministry to this day. From my perspective, Putz tells this important story well. Coaches, athletes, and pastors who hope to understand the relationship between Protestant Christianity and sports in the United States will find this an important book for years to come.