Rob Ellis – sport, “it’s like going to church”

Sport has replaced religion as a central part of people’s lives, Rob Ellis told audiences in Sheffield and Reading.

Sport and Christianity have a lot in common, according to Dr Rob Ellis in a talk at Catalyst Live 2014.

Dr Ellis discovered many links between the two after conducting a survey of sports players and fans for his book, The Games People Play: Theology, Religion and Sport, published earlier this year.

Players and spectators who took part in the survey said sport had a central significance in their lives and that it helped to create a sense of identity and define them. Ellis argued that this was similar to what happens to people who have a religious faith. The way sport defines the seasons for some, Ellis said, could be seen in “liturgical terms”, and some people relating to sport, like many religious people, were “most alive” when watching their team.

Ellis linked the rise of the popularity of sport to the decline of the Church. Since 1851, when it was at its highest in post-industrial Britain, church attendance has decreased as numbers participating and watching sport have dramatically increased.

Ellis also saw a link between the biblical concept of transcendence and that of the athlete wanting to reach beyond him or herself to a “beautiful and elusive moment of perfection”.
“The best performance always lies in front of an athlete,” he said.

Concluding, the Principal of Regent’s Park College in Oxford and first-time Catalyst Live speaker quoted what former footballer Thierry Henry said of Match of the Day: “It’s like going to church. It’s a religious thing.”