ABSTRACT
Those who have written about the relationship between sport and religion are in general agreement that academics outside of the traditional social science sports studies disciplines (i.e. sociology, history, anthropology, philosophy and psychology), such as theologians and philosophers of religion, have been slow to recognize the cultural significance of modern-day sports (see Watson, 2011a). In this chapter, 1 we argue that this trend is slowly changing. In addition to the emergence of research centres, academic journals and sport–faith initiatives, contributors to recent monographs and anthologies that analyse the different facets of the sport–religion relationship have emanated from a plethora of disciplinary fields and subject areas.
