Gods, Games, and Globalization: New Perspectives on Religion and Sports ed. by Rebecca Alpert, and Arthur Remillard (review)

A welcome addition to the analysis of the long-standing relationship between sports and religion can be found in Rebecca Alpert and Arthur Remillard's edited volume Gods, Games, and Globalization: New Perspectives on Religion and Sport. Part of Mercer University Press's "Sports and Religion" series, the volume is divided into three sections that introduce a global perspective to the exploration of religious experiences in sport. The coeditors aim to problematize the conversation on the topic with the use of diverse methods, theoretical approaches, and sources, an important intervention to a subfield that continues to grow with the work of the contributors of this volume and authors like Julie Byrne and William Baker.

The first part of the volume, "A Global Perspective," mainly focuses on the impact of Muscular Christianity in places like England, the Belgian Congo, France, and the Vatican. In his analysis of soccer and cycling in the Belgian Congo, Dries Vanysacker describes how Catholic missionaries used sport as a tool for the "improvement" of Indigenous people, reinforcing in such a way the country's colonial structure. In the Paradox of Christian Masculinity, Seth Dowland shows how, after World War I, Muscular Christians developed an internationalist rhetoric that placed sport as an articulating element of the new international relations that were transforming the world. In this sense, the Inter-Allied Games were used by political actors as a tool to heal "wartime wounds," while at the same time promoting core U.S. Christian customs and values.

In "Beyond the Holy Trinity," the second part of the volume, contributors explore practices traditionally underrepresented in academic discussions on the topic to show how fans and practitioners have invested religious meanings into their sporting practices. Jennifer Baldwin's original analysis of pole dancing shows how the dominant culture can obscure and stigmatize embodied practices by giving them definitions associated with the morals of a society. Baldwin confronts these moral, spiritual, and religious stereotypes by advancing her claim that pole dancing is a counterculture that can be liberating for both men and women. Interestingly, in this chapter, the author uses sources like YouTube and Facebook, demonstrating the potential that these electronic archives have for future research. Joe Prince's "Casting for Meaning" discusses the metaphysical dimensions of fly fishing by focusing on two works of fiction written by expert fishermen. This exciting approach is successful in explaining the mythical, mystical, and metaphysical dimensions of fly fishing and its importance to understanding the relationship between this practice, religion, and nature. Linda Borish, on her part, highlights the case of Sybil "Syd" Koff, a little-known Jewish American athlete who was active during the 1930s and 1940s. The chapter discusses the intersection between race, sport, gender, and religiosity by presenting Koff's actions as a display of agency, the power of sport, and an athlete's impact on political and collective action. Borish's tale of engagement, belonging, and ethnic and gender pride rescues from oblivion a remarkable sportswoman who deserves to be better known by the public.

Part Three, "Emerging Theoretical Insights," consists of four chapters in which the contributors use religious studies' methodologies to formulate new debates and research questions on the relationship between sports and religion. With chapters exploring the sociotheological paradigm, the pejorative sense of words like "religion" and "fanaticism" when used in relation to sport, the concept of racial martyrdom, and the idea of hope as a way to reinterpret the mechanism by which people relate spiritually with sport, this section is a significant contribution to the development of the subfield. Sirvent and Reyburn interrogate how scholars uncritically use terms like "religion" and "fanaticism" both in politics and in sports. The contributors claim there is a need to understand the meanings of these words and their role in placing sport as an exclusionary practice that perpetuates class, gender, and racial inequalities. With a...