Christianity, Race, and Sport

This book provides a rigorously researched introduction to the relationship between Christianity, race, and sport in the United States. Christianity, Race, and Sport examines how Protestant Christianity and race have interacted, often to the detriment of Black bodies, throughout the sporting world over the last century. Important sporting figures and case studies discussed include:

• the sanctification of baseball player Jackie Robinson;
• the domestication of Muhammad Ali and George Foreman;
• religious expressions of athletes in the NFL;
• treatment of African American tennis player Serena Williams;
• Colin Kaepernick and his prophetic voice.

This accessible and conversational book is essential reading for undergraduate students approaching religion and race or religion and sport for the first time, as well as those working within the sociology of sport, sport studies, history of sport, or philosophy of sport.

1. The Sanctification of Jackie Robinson 2. The Domestication of Muhammad Ali and George Foreman 3. Pray the White Way: Religious Expression in the NFL in Black and White 4. Dabo Swinney, Universal Whiteness, and a "Sin Problem" 5. Serena Williams and Her Two "Gods" 6. The Black Prophetic Fire of Colin Kaepernick

Jeffrey Scholes is associate professor of religious studies in the Department of Philosophy and the Director of the Center for Religious Diversity and Public Life at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA.