Anticipating Antichrist

Lars von Trier’s Antichrist is one of the few films that I really want to see this Fall.  Film and religion scholar S. Brent Plate wrote about it over the weekend for Religion Dispatches and will write more about it in the coming weeks.  You can find the link to his article after the jump.  What films are you looking forward to this Fall? [Read more]

MILK: A Pop Theology Dialogue

Pop Theology contributor Richard Lindsay and I saw Gus Van Sant’s new film, MILK, last week.  It tells the story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to political office in the United States.  We thought we would provide another dialogue review like we did with another interesting biopic this year, W..  Hope you enjoy. [Read more]

Sports, Religion, and Social Justice: Take Two

Here is some more footage of the GTU panel discussion on sports, religion, and social justice. In this video, you will hear Mike Beckman talk about the Green Bay Packers, Tai-Amri Spann Wilson reflect on his personal experiences with sports, and Emily Joy McGaughy finally adds some female flavor to the panel as she discusses women and sports.

Sports, Religion, and Social Justice: A New Hermeneutic?

Below is the footage from a talk that I gave as part of a panel discussion on sports, religion, and social justice. Hope you enjoy it.

Super Sunday

Happy Super Sunday! Super Bowl Sunday is the high holy day of American Civil Religion, bordering on holiday status. I often joke that if I were elected president, I would make the Monday following the Super Bowl a national holiday. Want to write me in? Theologians and scholars of religion have paid increasing attention to the connection between sports and religion and spirituality over the past few decades. Mercer University Press has a running series of books that explore the connection. One of these books, From Season to Season: Sports as American Religion, edited by Joseph L. Price, includes a variety of essays on baseball, football, basketball, hockey and wrestling, and a couple of essays on sports and religion in general. Two of Price’s essays, “From Sabbath Proscriptions to Super Sunday Celebrations: Sports and Religion in America” and “The Super Bowl as Religious Festival” offer insight into this holiest of days. [Read more]

Tragic…

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about sports and religion lately and am working on an essay on the deification of the collegiate/professional athlete in terms of immanence and transcendence. Sean Taylor’s tragic death early this week certainly reminds us of the immanence of professional athletes and their very real vulnerability juxtaposed to the invincible nature that much of sports talk places on them. While Taylor’s immediate and NFL families will mourn his death for some time to come, further investigation into this tragedy might complicate what looks like a botched robbery. It is well known that Taylor had a sketchy legal background but that he was also, fortunately, turning his life around. I certainly hope that this is not a case of his past catching up with him. A friend recently alerted me to an article about Michael Vick that, unfortunately, applies to many professional athletes. On last night’s Inside the NFL on HBO, former standout wide receiver Chris Carter noted the inability of many professional athletes to break free from bad associations and that, ultimately, “the streets” always win out.

George Dohrmann and Farrell Evans’ article, “The Road to Bad Newz,” adds some complexity to what might be seen as an easy case of good quarterback gone bad.

Dispatches from AAR…Take 3

Rounding out a long Saturday, I attended the Forum on Sports and Religion: Perspectives on the Pigskin, sponsored in part by Mercer University Press. The panelists included Joseph Price from Whittier College, Greg Sapp from Stetson University, Christopher Anderson from Drew University, Marc Jolley, director of Mercer University Press, Craig A. Forney from Arizona State University, and Eric Bain-Selbo from Western Kentucky University. This was by far the most promising session of the conference for me. Unfortunately, while the forum offered great contacts for further discussion/collaboration, the discussion within the forum just scratched the surface of a deep, yet youthful topic, perhaps due in part to the logistics of the forum itself. [Read more]

As if they couldn’t get any better…

The Colorado Rockies have certainly provided some exciting moments for this year’s MLB playoffs and continue to be the team to watch, leaving Philadelphia last night with a 2-0 lead over the Phillies. If their play on the field has been praiseworthy thus far, their off the field behavior is certainly the stuff of champions.

Rockies to Share Post-season Payout

Are You Ready for Some Football?!

To help celebrate the upcoming NFL season, which starts in just a few hours as the Saints visit the NFL Campion Colts, Bob Costas devoted his weekly sports journalism show on HBO, Costas Now, to, you guessed it, football. The hour-long program was composed of four excellent interviews with San Diego Chargers running back Ladainian Tomlinson, NFL Players Union President Gene Upshaw, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and NFL Hall of Fame running back Earl Campbell and a panel discussion with Phil Simms and Michael Irvin. Each segment of the program contributed directly to my recent thoughts on the the intersection of sports, ethics, spirituality, and theology. [Read more]

The Ripken Way…

On Sunday, two of baseball’s greatest, classiest players were inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. Cal Ripken, Jr. and Tony Gwynn are the epitome of what professional athletes should be both on and off the field. Their induction ceremony and speeches are reminders of all that is good about baseball and professional sports, especially in the midst of so many controversies surrounding every professional sports league. Ripken’s comments are doubtless directed at professional athletes but are also an encouragement to us all. Below are some excerpts from his speech. [Read more]

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