Undergraduate Course: Sport, Religion, and Society (DIVI10131)
Course Outline
| School | School of Divinity |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course critically examines how the study of religion aids our understanding and interpretation of the place of sport in culture, society, and politics. |
| Course description |
The main body of the course description should have three sub-sections (please use headings) of a paragraph each:
Academic Description
From global events like the Olympics and the World Cup to local recreational leagues and school gyms, sport is an increasingly dominant feature of modern societies. Religion is ever present in sport, both explicitly in an athlete's public display of piety and implicitly in the rituals and bodily practices that shape sporting and fan cultures. Through historical and contemporary case studies, the course examines the ways that religion is present in sport, considers if sport is a new secular religion, and studies how major social debates on religion and race, technology, gender, migration, and economics are contested through sport.
Outline Content
The course begins by providing students with frameworks for studying and interpreting the various intersections between sport and religion in societies. Through engagement with the theories and methods in the study of religion and theology, students will explore themes such as ritual in sport and religion, formations of the self, pilgrimage, communal belonging, and ethical critiques of sport. The second half of the course examines how sport and religion are central playing fields for major societal debates around migration, gender, religious diversity, sectarianism, technology, and global capitalism. Students will have the opportunity to integrate the academic study of religion and society into their own critical examination of how sports are played, watched and debated in modern societies.
Student Learning Experience
The course will include one hour of seminar discussion, with in depth analysis of both primary and secondary literature, and then will be followed by a one-hour lecture to prepare students for the next week's material. The lecture aims to provide students with the necessary background and framing of the course readings in order for them to be better analyze and evaluate the readings and prepare for the next week's reading. In addition, the students will be able to extend their learning through the Learn site, which will include links to podcasts, short videos, and blogs on the themes of the course. Students will also be encouraged to apply their theoretical learning to evaluate the sporting events and practices outside of class through watching live sport, televised sport, or reflecting on their own participation in sport.
|
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 Divinity/Religious Studies courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2025/26, Available to all students (SV1)
|
Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 22,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 1,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
173 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
1. Course Participation and Case Study, including a 400 word blog: 15%
2. Mid Term Course Essay, 1500 words: 35%
3. Essay in Lieu of Exam, 2500: 50% |
| Feedback |
Formative feedback will also be provided in preparation for both the mid-term essay and final essay. This will include in class preparation on how to prepare a critical essay, as well as individual comments on essay outlines. In addition, summative feedback from the mid-term essay will feed into the final assessment. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Critically evaluate the place of sport and religion in various modern societies
- Understand and analyze the diverse ways that religious communities have engaged with or evaluated the practice of sports
- Leverage the methods of religious studies and theology to understand and study the phenomenon of sport
- Identify and articulate how sport is a lens for understanding and debating modern social, technological, economic, and political concerns
- Engage critically with how governments, journalists, sports broadcasters, and political commentators present and represent sport, including global sporting spectacles such as the World Cup and Olympics
|
Reading List
Ernest Yeboah Acheampong, Malek Bouhaouala, and Michel Rapaud, African Footballers in Europe. (Taylor and Francis, 2020).
Afe Adogame, Nick Watson, and Andrew Parker (eds.), Global Perspectives on Sports and Christianity (Palgrave McMillan, 2017).
Cara Carmichael Aitchison, Sport and Gender Identities: Masculinities, Femininities and Sexualities (Taylor and Francis, 2007).
Rebecca T. Alpert, Religion and Sports: An Introduction and Case Studies (Columbia University Press, 2015)
William Baker, Playing with God: Religion and Modern Sport (Harvard University Press, 2007)
Susan Birrell, 'Sport as Ritual: Interpretations from Durkheim to Goffman,' Social Forces Vol 60 (1981): 354-376.
Michael Brenner and Gideon Reuveni, Emancipation through Muscles: Jews and Sports in Europe (University of Nebraska Press, 2006).
Simon Chadwick, Paul Widdop, and Michael Goldman (eds.), The Geopolitical Economy of Sport: Power, Politics, Money, and the State (Routledge, 2023).
Lincoln Harvey, A Brief Theology of Sport (Cascade, 2014)
Grant Jarvie, Sport, Culture, and Society 3rd Edition (Routledge, 2017).
Simon Jenkins, 'Zen Buddhism, Sports Psychology, and Golf,' International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching (2008): 215-237.
Hugh McLeod, Religion and the Rise of Sport in England (Oxford University Press, 2022).
Brad Schultz and Mary Lou Sheffer (eds.), Sport and Religion in the Twenty-First Century (Lexington Press, 2015).
Terry T. Shoemaker, Religions and Sports: The Basics (Routledge, 2024).
Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, The Kingdom of Football: Saudi Arabia and the Remaking of World Soccer (Hurst, 2025).
Andrew Parker and Nick J Watson, 'Sport, Religion, and Beliefs,' in Lawerence Winner (ed), The Oxford Handbook on Sport and Society (Oxford University Press, 2023).
|
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Ability to pursue and present independent research
Capacity to engage critically with media, journalism, and public discussion on social and political issues
Develop critical and reflective writing skills through research
Learn to engage and apply academic writing and theories to cultural, political, and economic practices around sport
|
| Keywords | Sport,Social Ethics,Ritual,Sectarianism,Global Politics |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Joshua Ralston
Tel: (0131 6)50 8928
Email: Joshua.Ralston@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
|
|
University Homepage