What do you think?
Rate this book
Religion and the Rise of Sport in England
Tells the story of the changing relationship between sport and religion from 1800 to the present day
Both religion and sport stir deep emotions, shape identities, and inspire powerful loyalties. They have sometimes been in competition for people's resources of time and money, but can also be mutually supportive.
We live in a world where sport seems to be everywhere. Not only is there saturation media coverage but governments extol the benefits of sport for nation and individual, and in 2019 the Church of England appointed a Bishop for Sport. The religious world has not always looked so kindly on sport. In the early nineteenth century, Evangelical Christians led campaigns to ban sports deemed cruel, brutal or disorderly. But from the 1850s Christian and other religious leaders turned from attacking 'bad' sports to promoting 'good' ones. The pace of change accelerated in the 1960s, as commercialization of sport intensified and Sunday sport became established, while the world of religion was transformed by increasing secularization, a resurgent Evangelicalism, and the growth of a multi-faith society.
This is the first book to tell this story, and while its principal focus is on Christianity, there is additional coverage of Judaism and Islam, as there is of those - from Victorian sporting gentry to present-day football fans and marathon runners - for whom sport is itself a religion.
Both religion and sport stir deep emotions, shape identities, and inspire powerful loyalties. They have sometimes been in competition for people's resources of time and money, but can also be mutually supportive.
We live in a world where sport seems to be everywhere. Not only is there saturation media coverage but governments extol the benefits of sport for nation and individual, and in 2019 the Church of England appointed a Bishop for Sport. The religious world has not always looked so kindly on sport. In the early nineteenth century, Evangelical Christians led campaigns to ban sports deemed cruel, brutal or disorderly. But from the 1850s Christian and other religious leaders turned from attacking 'bad' sports to promoting 'good' ones. The pace of change accelerated in the 1960s, as commercialization of sport intensified and Sunday sport became established, while the world of religion was transformed by increasing secularization, a resurgent Evangelicalism, and the growth of a multi-faith society.
This is the first book to tell this story, and while its principal focus is on Christianity, there is additional coverage of Judaism and Islam, as there is of those - from Victorian sporting gentry to present-day football fans and marathon runners - for whom sport is itself a religion.
298 pages, Hardcover
Published February 10, 2023
About the author
Hugh McLeod
33 books5 followersProfessor Hugh McLeod teaches in the School of Historical Studies at the University of Birmingham.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 10, 2023
**Shortlisted for the Lord Aberdare Literary Prize 2023**
It is hard to separate histories of modern English, if not British, sport from religion. The motif of the muscular Christian is a powerful image associated with the nineteenth century, while British sports’ deep interweaving to histories of Empire and manliness all evoke the moral mission of Christian ‘civilisation’. It’s a potent, dangerous, and highly problematic image and association. Yet, until now, almost all of this work has been the product of historians whose specialist focus is sport, not religion – and especially not Christianity. This is where the power and significance of this impressive piece of work lies.
McLeod is one of the UK’s leading historians of the Christian church and that expertise and depth of knowledge is on subdued but impressive display throughout this book. Understandably the predominant focus is on Christianity – primarily Anglicanism and among the non-conformists, Methodists: it is England after all. There is notable attention to the Jewish presence in and attitudes towards sport, although to a large degree this distinctiveness abates during the first third of the twentieth century. The non-Christian presence more recently is mainly South Asian faiths and Islam. In these McLeod’s footing is not so deft – understandably, almost all his previous work has focused on Christian churches so his knowledge is deeper, broader and more malleable so more subtly woven into his analysis. Even so, his grasp across and engagement with social and religious histories of the three Abrahamic faiths is impressive.
McLeod paints a picture of the sport-religion relationship marked by four principal periods. In the first, until the mid-nineteenth century the principal Christian churches, leaving aside some non-conformist sects, generally engaged well with sport – despite concern about protection of the Sabbath and moral qualms around gambling and so forth. In the second, from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries, the relationship becomes more fraught, with a growing evangelical opposition offset by the image of the muscular Christian and strands of the mainstream churches, especially in Anglicanism but also across many non-conformists an active engagement with sport. For some this was a mission activity, for others it was part of a social role for the church in underserved and poor areas.
Since the early twentieth century, McLeod sees a different story. Here he highlights what some scholars have labelled diffusive Christianity, where there is a declining engagement with churches but a widespread sense of Christian morals and so forth. In line with this argument, organised religion seems to become less important although there is a perception of a widespread engagement with a banal religiousness. Here he begins especially to draw out other-than-Christian presences, especially debates within Judaism. The fourth phase he identifies is a much more multi-faith world emerging in the third of the twentieth century. Here he paints a similarly paradoxical picture of distinction on the basis of faith alongside an active presence in an increasingly secular everyday and a banal ecumenism.
While each of these eras is marked by trends and orientations to contested but dominant views, each is marked by multiple strands reflecting McLeod’s depiction of religion as far from monolithic – so even though he clearly distinguishes several strands in Anglicanism, marked by distinction within the church those strands are not presented as monolithic or even all that coherent in their approaches to sport. This same sense of multiplicity emerges when he turns to relations within other non-Christian faiths as well as between them. That is to say, this is a complex, subtle, nuanced elegant analysis.
Here we see the significance of expertise. McLeod’s sophisticated grasp of religious history, more so Christian as noted, mean this discussion has a light-footed feel to it. His has a knowledgeable and deep grasp of debates within and among churches and tendencies within them, an engagement with church records and archives, figures and personalities that means he paints a much more heterogeneous image of religion’s engagements with sport than we get from the scholars whose specialist field is sport. Consequently, McLeod is less surefooted and subtle in his engagements with sport his senior peers in that field might be. This is not a criticism in any way, more so because this a broad sweep synthesis so we should not expect detail and deep dives into specific cases: this is the literature he draws on.
The outcome is a profoundly insightful case that is a major contribution to our understanding of sport, physical and popular cultures as they relate to religion – despite our secularism still a major force in England. McLeod writes elegantly and deftly, explaining carefully in a way that makes the sport-religion dynamic obvious without overburdening readers with textual and scriptural excess. This is an exquisite social history of ideas in their shifting world and practice. Although It may be a little specialist, it enriches our understanding of English sport history in major ways and must quickly become a core part of the field, while also being subject to critical assessment and evaluation as a driver of new research programmes. Highly recommended.
It is hard to separate histories of modern English, if not British, sport from religion. The motif of the muscular Christian is a powerful image associated with the nineteenth century, while British sports’ deep interweaving to histories of Empire and manliness all evoke the moral mission of Christian ‘civilisation’. It’s a potent, dangerous, and highly problematic image and association. Yet, until now, almost all of this work has been the product of historians whose specialist focus is sport, not religion – and especially not Christianity. This is where the power and significance of this impressive piece of work lies.
McLeod is one of the UK’s leading historians of the Christian church and that expertise and depth of knowledge is on subdued but impressive display throughout this book. Understandably the predominant focus is on Christianity – primarily Anglicanism and among the non-conformists, Methodists: it is England after all. There is notable attention to the Jewish presence in and attitudes towards sport, although to a large degree this distinctiveness abates during the first third of the twentieth century. The non-Christian presence more recently is mainly South Asian faiths and Islam. In these McLeod’s footing is not so deft – understandably, almost all his previous work has focused on Christian churches so his knowledge is deeper, broader and more malleable so more subtly woven into his analysis. Even so, his grasp across and engagement with social and religious histories of the three Abrahamic faiths is impressive.
McLeod paints a picture of the sport-religion relationship marked by four principal periods. In the first, until the mid-nineteenth century the principal Christian churches, leaving aside some non-conformist sects, generally engaged well with sport – despite concern about protection of the Sabbath and moral qualms around gambling and so forth. In the second, from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries, the relationship becomes more fraught, with a growing evangelical opposition offset by the image of the muscular Christian and strands of the mainstream churches, especially in Anglicanism but also across many non-conformists an active engagement with sport. For some this was a mission activity, for others it was part of a social role for the church in underserved and poor areas.
Since the early twentieth century, McLeod sees a different story. Here he highlights what some scholars have labelled diffusive Christianity, where there is a declining engagement with churches but a widespread sense of Christian morals and so forth. In line with this argument, organised religion seems to become less important although there is a perception of a widespread engagement with a banal religiousness. Here he begins especially to draw out other-than-Christian presences, especially debates within Judaism. The fourth phase he identifies is a much more multi-faith world emerging in the third of the twentieth century. Here he paints a similarly paradoxical picture of distinction on the basis of faith alongside an active presence in an increasingly secular everyday and a banal ecumenism.
While each of these eras is marked by trends and orientations to contested but dominant views, each is marked by multiple strands reflecting McLeod’s depiction of religion as far from monolithic – so even though he clearly distinguishes several strands in Anglicanism, marked by distinction within the church those strands are not presented as monolithic or even all that coherent in their approaches to sport. This same sense of multiplicity emerges when he turns to relations within other non-Christian faiths as well as between them. That is to say, this is a complex, subtle, nuanced elegant analysis.
Here we see the significance of expertise. McLeod’s sophisticated grasp of religious history, more so Christian as noted, mean this discussion has a light-footed feel to it. His has a knowledgeable and deep grasp of debates within and among churches and tendencies within them, an engagement with church records and archives, figures and personalities that means he paints a much more heterogeneous image of religion’s engagements with sport than we get from the scholars whose specialist field is sport. Consequently, McLeod is less surefooted and subtle in his engagements with sport his senior peers in that field might be. This is not a criticism in any way, more so because this a broad sweep synthesis so we should not expect detail and deep dives into specific cases: this is the literature he draws on.
The outcome is a profoundly insightful case that is a major contribution to our understanding of sport, physical and popular cultures as they relate to religion – despite our secularism still a major force in England. McLeod writes elegantly and deftly, explaining carefully in a way that makes the sport-religion dynamic obvious without overburdening readers with textual and scriptural excess. This is an exquisite social history of ideas in their shifting world and practice. Although It may be a little specialist, it enriches our understanding of English sport history in major ways and must quickly become a core part of the field, while also being subject to critical assessment and evaluation as a driver of new research programmes. Highly recommended.
March 2, 2023
In depth, well researched academic book on sports history. Ties nicely into existing academic writings on sports that I’m more familiar with in an Irish and American context. Interesting that it’s written by a religious scholar coming into the world of sports history, I’d be curious to read something on the same topic by a sports historian with a novel view on religion. Does not address the ideas that sport has supplanted religion in the public consciousness as in-depth as I would have liked, or at least tackling what that means from a sociological perspective.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews