One of the things I’m trying to do through these posts is sketch a Christian phenomenology of sports. Wait! Don’t click off; let me explain. Phenomenology is simply the study/science of a phenomenon. In this case the phenomena is the activity you’re involved with when playing a particular sport. It’s concerned with the act – your experience – of hitting, shooting, tackling, riding, running, swimming, skiing etc. I refer to it as, the “thing-in-itself”; it’s the total experience of “doing” the sport. As I’ve stated before, sports are not merely instrumental, but have meaning within itself. A given sports value is established on its own merits finding its rational in the rational and love of God. We do not apprehend God by moving beyond the sport, but by exactly attending to it – in other words, playing it. Like all things in Creation, sports are intended to be medium transparent, an avenue wherein we ascend to the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. Simply stated, I’m suggesting that God can be experienced by faith in the phenomena of a sport – in the hitting, shooting, tackling, riding, running, swimming, skiing etc.
Most approaches to Christian Athletes, that I read or hear are concerned with those things that are “tangential” to the sporting activity itself. One of the most common approaches by Christians to sports is that of a “school for life” mentality. For example you readily hear things like, “Sports teach us lessons we can use in ‘real’ life”, or “sports are a microcosm of life”. One famous Christian author writes, “You will understand more clearly how to apply God’s word to your non-athletic world as you apply it to your athletic performance.” What this author and others are talking about is “how you act” (character) or you attitudes. The example he gives is of topping a driver off tee box and out of anger you take the driver and break over your knee. Then he compares this to getting an unexpected bill with an added charge that you also rip up out of anger. His idea is that if you can learn to control yourself in sports, like a “Christian ought to act”, it will teach how to handle things in the real world. What matters here is not the sporting activity itself, but how we “act” in and around the activity. Ultimately, on this line of thinking the sporting activity itself gets lost – has no meaning in and of itself.
Furthermore he assumes that breaking the driver over a knee or tearing up the bill out of anger is a non-Christian way of acting – a sinful act. I’m not so sure he can make that argument; there is a possibility that it is a perfectly viable Christian response. Jesus broke some things one time in the Temple out of anger. We don’t know what goes through an individual’s mind when they act in certain ways; not every outburst of anger is a sinful one just like not every “act of love” is a truly loving one. Anger is a natural (appropriate) human Christian response to things that upset us. Likewise, happiness and laughter is a natural (appropriate) human Christian response to things that make us joyful. But this takes me away from our original discussion, which is the importance of the actual sporting activity itself for the athlete. I’ll have something to say about character down the road, but it will be with direct reference to the experience of God in the sporting phenomena. The goal of playing (or practicing) a sport is not ‘character’ building, but the experience that comes from the activity in and of itself.
In addition to the “schooling” mentality, Christian writers will argue that sports are “a built in platform for sharing the good news”. In other words, in and through sports you can become a witness to Jesus Christ. Again, here the emphasis is placed on how you “act” when you play. If you show a good attitude (character) in practice and competing – don’t get mad, don’t cuss, scream or break things – then you can be a good witness to Jesus. Even further, if you are really good at a sport you will have a platform in our society – like a Stefan Curry or Tim Tebow – to share your faith. Perhaps these things are true, but again they are tangential to the sporting activity itself (not mention the problematic constructions of Christian character that accompany such views). My complaint is that most Christian “takes’” on sports look beyond the “thing-in-itself”. When we do this, the sporting activity itself gets lost and becomes of no real consequence. The problem is that it is the “thing-in-itself” that the serious athlete spends all of her/his energy doing. If that activity (hitting, throwing, running etc.) is of no real consequence then the serious athlete is wasting a lot time – might as well hang up the cleats and go spend your time and energy feeding the poor. What we need is a better “take” on sports, one that considers the “activity in and of itself” and the effort that one spends at perfecting it. A theology of sorts on the art of painting a fastball with a little sink on the outside corner, or of performing a forward 2 1/2 somersaults, with a twist in the pike position off a spring board. To do this we first need to consider God’s purpose for Creation – including us human beings – as well as our intended relationship to that Creation and God.