“All I know most surely about morality and obligation I owe to football”,
Journal of Disability & Religion
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Volume 18, Issue 1, 2014
In spring 2014, The Journal of Disability & Religion devoted an entire issue to disability sport. The issue consisted of an introduction and six papers.
The editors, Nick J. Watson and Andrew Parker note the literature on “the social, cultural, political and historical aspects of disability” but the general neglect of spirituality and religion in relation to disability.
P. David Howe and Andrew Parker: Disability as a Path to Spiritual
Enlightenment: An Ethnographic Account of the Significance of Religion in Paralympic Sport.
The article “explores the importance of spirituality amidst the culture that surrounds high performance athletes who have acquired impairments [and] highlights the way in which spirituality and religion may be used as a vehicle for dealing with issues of re-embodiment and how this might impact long-term athlete well-being.”
The article refers to a Paralympian’s experience of attending chapel at the 1988 Paralympics and quotes other athletes for whom disability has been a significant factor in their journey to faith – for some it was a “transformation from able-bodied non-believer to impaired believer”. The authors suggest that the athletes’ religious faith provides them with a new understanding of their position in the world.
Nick J Watson: Special Olympians as a “Prophetic Sign” to the Modern Sporting Babel.
From a comprehensive review of the literature in the disciplines of theology of disability and disability sport’ Nick Watson concludes that here is virtually no empirical research or scholarship on disability sport from a Christian perspective.
The most challenging idea in the chapter – one which is explicit in the title - is whether disabled athletes have a prophetic message for sport in an “era that exalts self, celebrity, wealth, outward beauty the intellect, success and the need to be perfect in all that we do”. The New Testament reminds us that God delights in using the poor, weak and humble rather than the rich and famous.
“Perhaps then, relationships with persons with disabilities in sport (ID and PD) can prophetically speak to others and allow them to see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn’ and enter into a relationship with God the Father (Matt. 13:15). As Moltmann (1998: 121) intimates, ‘a person with disabilities gives others the precious insight into the woundedness and weakness of human life,’ and I would add, the heart of Jesus for the world of sport”.
An important and thought-provoking article.
Graeme Watts: Towards a Theology of Disability Sport: A Misconstrued Game Plan
The abstract of the article includes some thought-provoking, even provocative statements:
“Effort devoted to exploring a theology of disability sport is not only misdirected but counterproductive to the interests of athletes with a disability… To pursue a theology of disability sport is to reinforce a familiar reaction towards people with a disability”.
The papers review some material on sport and Christianity – including some of my own writings – before concluding with a strong affirmation: “It is my conviction that even in a person with profound intellectual disability, there exists a reflection of the image of God”.
Nick J. Watson & Catherine A. O'Keefe “Celebration” as the Spiritual
Expression of Leisure and Sport: Reflections on the L’Arche Tradition and the Special Olympics.
The article presents the activities of leisure and sport (especially the Special
Olympics) as offering those with disabilities a vehicle for spiritual expression
through “celebration” which can offer “those on the margins of society
one vehicle to life in all its fullness (John 10: 10b)”.
The CEO of the Special Olympics, Timothy Shriver is quoted: “. . . Special
Olympics movement is a challenge to the world to recognize human giftedness,
dignity and value,” it is a “. . . celebration of the gifts of people with
intellectual disabilities”
Peter M. Hopsicker A Modern Conception of Flesh: Towards a Theology of Disability Sport.
The article contends that any well-conceived Christian theology of disability
sport “must include a modern and diverse perspective on the Pauline concept
of ‘flesh’.” That includes seeing prostheses, orthotics or even wheelchairs as “flesh” in the Pauline sense.
There is a thorough discussion of John A. T. Robinson’s work, The Body: A Study in
Pauline Theology, and how it applies to disability.
Paul Heintzman: Nature-Based Recreation, Spirituality and Persons with
Disabilities.
This article states its aim as to “synthesize empirical studies that explain the relationship between nature-based recreation and spirituality for persons with disabilities and argues the importance of creating space in the lives of people with disability for their spirituality to be expressed in nature-based activity. While there is a reference to dragon boat racing, the article is much more about recreation that sport.
Timothy Shriver: Triumph From Anguish: The Inspiration of the Special Olympics.
The Special Olympics movement is waging a dignity revolution worldwide on behalf of a segment of society who are routinely discriminated against and denied opportunity. The size of the Special Olympics movement around the world - with 4 million athletes who train and play and compete in over 70,000 Olympic-type events every year” – will surprise many.
Shriver, the CEO of the Special Olympics, writes with passion about celebrating the gifts of people with intellectual disabilities. “We will not rest until every person with an intellectual disability is given a chance to prove his or her value to the world”.