Passion Plays

Randall Balmer, a historian of religion, came to sports talk radio late and quickly became hooked, as many American fans do. As he listened, he began asking how that intense devotion related to religious practice.

The question works in both directions. Churches and other religious bodies once condemned sporting events that broke the Sabbath, yet many now welcome Super Bowl Sunday. Meanwhile, James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, was a committed Muscular Christian who expected the game to build religious character, a purpose that most fans no longer associate with it.

Balmer, a scholar of American religion, turns his attention to team sports, including baseball, basketball, football and ice hockey. Tracing their origins and development from the late nineteenth century to the present, he offers anecdotes and fresh perspectives on how these games have connected with religious life.