Playing for God : evangelical women and the unintended consequences of sports ministry

Blazer, Annie (author.).

Record details

Bibliography:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:	Introduction: Practicing faith: sports ministry and evangelicalism in America -- Making the save: conversion and witnessing -- Transcendent intimacy: the embodied pleasures of sport -- Spiritual warfare and Christlikeness: narratives of bodies and battlefields -- Wearing our shorts a little longer: testing the boundaries of evangelical femininity -- Challenging the call: sexual desire and sexual deviance -- Faith off the field: negotiating gender at home -- Conclusion: A tale of unintended consequences.
Summary:	When sports ministry first emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, its founders imagined male celebrity athletes as powerful salespeople who could deliver a message of Christian strength: "If athletes can endorse shaving cream, razor blades, and cigarettes, surely they can endorse the Lord, too," reasoned Fellowship of Christian Athletes founder Don McClanen. But combining evangelicalism and sport did much more than serve as an advertisement for religion: it gave athletes the opportunity to think about the embodied experiences of sport as a way to experience intimate connection with the divine. As spo.