Printed: December 27, 2023
A sports activities historian shares how Christian athletes can affect Christ
By a Movieguide® contributor
Sports activities historian Paul Putz joined the “Sports activities Spectrum” podcast to explain the impression Christian athletes can have by giving glory to God, win or lose.
“…Jesus calls us to his faithfulness — and success might or might not come by the world's requirements,” Putz mentioned. “, typically it’s and typically it isn't. However he calls us to be trustworthy whatever the circumstances, so at greatest, when nice Christian athletes or coaches inform their tales, they’re trustworthy witnesses of what Christ has achieved of their lives, win or lose. And I believe that's why it may be actually highly effective for somebody on the dropping group to witness who they’re in Christ.”
For extra inspiring sports activities tales, take a look at Sports activities Spectrum.
In a latest article, Putz defined how Christianity is “deeply intertwined” with basketball.
“From the start, basketball was designed with clear limits,” he wrote. “It was an interim sport to fill the hole between the autumn soccer season and the spring baseball season. It wasn't an all-encompassing imaginative and prescient of life—actually not for its founder, who rapidly turned the sport's administration over to others. However basketball has one thing to say about ethical formation and human improvement.”
For instance, “the origins of basketball remind us of the dignity and worth of our God-given our bodies, a price that’s affirmed within the Christmas story by which 'the Phrase turned flesh and dwelt amongst us' (John 1:14),” Putz wrote within the Substack article .
He defined that “Muscular Christianity,” a nineteenth-century motion that sought to appropriate “the disconnection of religion from the bodily,” helped transfer the church “towards a extra optimistic view of the human physique.”
“Muscular Christians like Naismith instructed as a substitute that sports activities might assist fellow believers acknowledge the sacred worth of their our bodies,” Putz wrote.
“Basketball was actually formed and impressed by Naismith's need to make use of sport for evangelical Christian ministry,” he added.
Putz serves as assistant director of the Religion and Sports activities Institute at Baylor's Truett Seminary.
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