Passion Plays
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€25.99
Regular price
€31.99
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A. G. Mills
A. G. Spalding
A01=Randall Balmer
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Author_Randall Balmer
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Baseball
basketball
Black Fives
Canadian Confederation
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HR
Category=JHBS
Category=QR
Category=SC
Category=WS
Charles Dudley Daly
Civil War
Cooperstown
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
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eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
eq_sports-fitness
flying wedge
football
football violence
George C. Wallace
Harlem Globetrotters
hockey
hockey violence
Industrial Revolution
integration
Jackie Robinson
James A. Naismith
Johnny Bright
Language_English
Mills Commission
Notre Dame
PA=Available
Paul "Bear" Bryant
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
racial desegregation
religion
softlaunch
sports radio
symbolism of sports
team sports
urbanization
Walter Camp
YMCA
Product details
- ISBN 9781469670065
- Weight: 363g
- Dimensions: 151 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 20 Sep 2022
- Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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Randall Balmer was a late convert to sports talk radio, but he quickly became addicted, just like millions of other devoted American sports fans. As a historian of religion, the more he listened, Balmer couldn't help but wonder how the fervor he heard related to religious practice. Houses of worship once railed against Sabbath-busting sports events, but today most willingly accommodate Super Bowl Sunday. On the other hand, basketball's inventor, James Naismith, was an ardent follower of Muscular Christianity and believed the game would help develop religious character. But today those religious roots are largely forgotten.
Here one of our most insightful writers on American religion trains his focus on that other great passion—team sports—to reveal their surprising connections. From baseball to basketball and football to ice hockey, Balmer explores the origins and histories of big-time sports from the late nineteenth century to the present, with entertaining anecdotes and fresh insights into their ties to religious life. Referring to Notre Dame football, The Catholic Sun called its fandom "a kind of sacramental." Legions of sports fans reading Passion Plays will recognize exactly what that means.
Here one of our most insightful writers on American religion trains his focus on that other great passion—team sports—to reveal their surprising connections. From baseball to basketball and football to ice hockey, Balmer explores the origins and histories of big-time sports from the late nineteenth century to the present, with entertaining anecdotes and fresh insights into their ties to religious life. Referring to Notre Dame football, The Catholic Sun called its fandom "a kind of sacramental." Legions of sports fans reading Passion Plays will recognize exactly what that means.
Randall Balmer is a prize-winning historian, leading public commentator on religion, and author of more than dozen books. He holds the John Phillips Chair in Religion at Dartmouth College.
