Last week we discussed the fraught history of the church and sports. This week we turn to a more positive theology of sports grounded in the doctrine of creation. Is sport a consequence of the fall (Genesis 3) or can it be grounded in God’s good creation (Genesis 1)?

In this two part teaching I’ve been closely following the argument of a wonderful book by Lincoln Harvey entitled “A Brief Theology of Sport.”

George Orwell famously quipped that sport is “war without guns.” That is to tell the story of sports beginning in Genesis 3. Harvey argues that this is to get it backwards. Sport is not a civilized form of war; war is a corrupted form of sport.

However, we do live in a fallen world in which everything is corrupted by sin. The church needs to be able to tell two stories simultaneously about all things: we live in a corrupted world and sport is a part of that broken world; but by faith we understand that the world was created good by a good God. Sport is corrupted in many, many ways, but it is also part of God’s good creation (which explains why it is so unstoppably popular).

Harvey’s theological contention is that, through a robust doctrine of creation, sport can be seen as a celebration of the deepest truth of our identity as unnecessary-yet-meaningful creatures. God’s creation of the world is completely unnecessary (it is a free act, not necessary in any way) and yet completely meaningful. God’s act of creation is “play.” As creatures we are completely unnecessary but completely meaningful. Sport reveals the deep truth of who we are. In fact, sport can be directly mapped onto the doctrine of creation and seen as a celebration of our created reality.

But as a celebration of who we are in our created reality, it is easily corrupted by humanity sicut deus (humanity in its attempt to supplant God in order to become gods against God).

There is a thin line separating sports as self-worship (the fall) and sports as a celebration of our created identity as unnecessary but meaningful creatures.

You can listen to a great interview with Lincoln Harvey on his book here.

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