God in the Stadium: Sports and Religion in AmericaFrom the worship of Michael Jordan to the downfall of O.J. Simpson, it has become clear that sports and sports heroes have assumed a role in American society far out of proportion to their traditional value. In this powerful critique of present-day American popular culture, Robert J. Higgs examines the complex and increasingly pervasive control that sports wield in shaping the national self-image. He provides a thoughtful history and analysis of the ways sports and religion have become intertwined and offers a stringent indictment of the sports-religion-media-education complex. |
Contents
From Sabbath Bans to Super Sunday | 1 |
The Old Knight in the New World | 22 |
Revolutionary Heroes and Fighting Parsons | 36 |
Copyright | |
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Adams American Andrew Carnegie army Army-Navy game athletic attitude baseball battle became Bible Billy Graham Billy Sunday Bowl cadets called Carnegie celebrated century Chicago chivalry Christ church Civil coach competition contrast culture Dame Eliot Emerson evangelism evangelists exercises Falwell famous fight football Frank Merriwell frontier graduates Gulick Harvard Henry hero heroic Higginson honor ibid ideal Ivy League Jerry Falwell Jesus John King knight knighthood knightly Lindsley manliness Merriwell Military Academy mind Moody moral Morrill Morrill Act Muir muscular Christianity nature NCAA Neyland organized physical education play players president Princeton Puritans quoted religious Rockne says shepherd social social gospel society soldiers spirit sports and religion stadium Stagg Standish Stover at Yale success symbol television Tennessee Thayer Theodore Roosevelt Thoreau tradition Twain University victory virtues Washington West Point winning words Yale YMCA York Yost young