 Trade In this Item for up to £6.00
Trade in Good Game: Christianity and the Culture of Sports for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £6.00, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
In recent years the United States has seen an influx of Christian athletes and coaches into big-time sports, as well as a heightened importance placed on sports in church programs and enormous platforms for intercollegiate sports at Christian schools and colleges. However, as Shirl Hoffman critiques, a Christian vision of sport remains merely superficial - replete with prayers before free throws and praises after touchdowns but offering little if any alternative vision from the secular sports culture. Far from being the kind of life-affirming, faith-affirming events that they could be, games played in Christian college gymnasiums, for example, too often end up as mockeries of the faith statements given prominence in their mission statements. Here, in this thoughtful, narrative-driven exploration, Hoffman retells numerous fascinating stories from the world of ancient and contemporary sports and draws on the history of the Christian tradition as he seeks to answer the question 'What would it mean to think Christianly about sport?'
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Dense, thoughtful and needed
20 Mar 2010
Format:Paperback
This is a very long (300+ pages), dense and thoughtful book. I didn't always agree with the arguments Hoffman set forth, but he does an excellent job at thinking critically about a topic needs further exploration - namely the intersection between Christian faith and sports. A point that Hoffman often comes back to is that Christians have been influenced by sports more than the other way around.
The first half of this book is a history of the church's relationship with sports. This was an important section, though I found it hard to get through at times. It felt more like a book I would read for class rather than for pleasure. The second half of the book was more contemporary and tackled topics such as the killer instinct and prayer on the athletic field. I enjoyed this section much more and would recommend reading it first if you are interested in this treatise, but don't have time to go through the whole thing.
Overall, I found this book well-researched (the bibliography is massive) and necessary. Hoffman is an expert on the topic of faith and sports. He uses many stories and anecdotes across generations that I had either never heard or were buried in my mind and does a masterful job weaving it all together. Sports need to be brought into the conversation between Christ and culture. Hopefully, this book will open some much-needed dialogue regarding some insidious aspects of sports and competition. It gets into some solutions at the end, but just being aware and surfacing issues is an important first step.
(The book was provided for review by the publisher.)
The first half of this book is a history of the church's relationship with sports. This was an important section, though I found it hard to get through at times. It felt more like a book I would read for class rather than for pleasure. The second half of the book was more contemporary and tackled topics such as the killer instinct and prayer on the athletic field. I enjoyed this section much more and would recommend reading it first if you are interested in this treatise, but don't have time to go through the whole thing.
Overall, I found this book well-researched (the bibliography is massive) and necessary. Hoffman is an expert on the topic of faith and sports. He uses many stories and anecdotes across generations that I had either never heard or were buried in my mind and does a masterful job weaving it all together. Sports need to be brought into the conversation between Christ and culture. Hopefully, this book will open some much-needed dialogue regarding some insidious aspects of sports and competition. It gets into some solutions at the end, but just being aware and surfacing issues is an important first step.
(The book was provided for review by the publisher.)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
A worthy read for Christian athletes
12 April 2010
Format:Paperback
There's more to faith in sports than a pre-game prayer. "Good Game: Christianity and the Culture of Sports" looks into the relationship of Christianity and the sports that so many Christians love and embrace, often thanking God for their successes or the very least hoping for it. Stating that much of the religion in modern sports is empty and soulless, Shirl James Hoffman provides many stories of genuine faith in sports. "Good Game" is a worthy read for Christian athletes.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Thought-provoking with much to ponder
20 Feb 2010
Format:Paperback
Is there a difference between how Christians view sports and competition as opposed to the rest of the world? Should there be?
Shirl James Hoffman addresses our society's obsession with sports. This is a fascinating book with much to ponder. I especially urge believers to thoughtfully read this and take a look at their attitudes toward sports. This will not be a popular book, and will likely make some folks angry or, at the least, defensive. But for those who read it with an open and reflective spirit, it will transform how they view the athletic competitions of our day.
Hoffman details the history of the Christian response to sport from the days of the early church to modern times. At various times in history, the "church" frowned upon athletics because of the mind-set needed and the potential for obsession. In modern times the church has not only accepted sports but embraced it in what the author calls Sportianity. The author also takes a look at character, and how sport impacts that, which, surprisingly, isn't always for the better.
Hoffman isn't a sports hater; on the contrary, he simply points out some troubling aspects of this obsession and provides suggestions for sports to become the well-played game it should be.
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher; I was not required to write a positive review.
Shirl James Hoffman addresses our society's obsession with sports. This is a fascinating book with much to ponder. I especially urge believers to thoughtfully read this and take a look at their attitudes toward sports. This will not be a popular book, and will likely make some folks angry or, at the least, defensive. But for those who read it with an open and reflective spirit, it will transform how they view the athletic competitions of our day.
Hoffman details the history of the Christian response to sport from the days of the early church to modern times. At various times in history, the "church" frowned upon athletics because of the mind-set needed and the potential for obsession. In modern times the church has not only accepted sports but embraced it in what the author calls Sportianity. The author also takes a look at character, and how sport impacts that, which, surprisingly, isn't always for the better.
Hoffman isn't a sports hater; on the contrary, he simply points out some troubling aspects of this obsession and provides suggestions for sports to become the well-played game it should be.
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher; I was not required to write a positive review.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
