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St. Olaf hosts second international conference examining the intersection of sport and religion

By Elizabeth Child
October 28, 2005

Has sport become a "religion" for passionate athletes, coaches, parents and fans? What is the relationship between sport and religion in culture? Is that relationship something to embrace?

Scholars at the second annual St. Olaf College conference on Sport & Religion: An Inquiry into Cultural Values will address these and other questions. The nondenominational conference, which draws speakers internationally, will be held at St. Olaf on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 28 and 29.

It is appropriate for the general public, professors, athletic and other school administrators, clergy, coaches and athletes. Registration is $185 ($145 for students).

"Tension exists between sport and religion on and off the field, and St. Olaf is creating a unique forum for dialogue on this issue," says Conference Chair and St. Olaf Associate Professor of Physical Education Gary Wicks. "We want people to come away with a deeper understanding of issues that manifest themselves daily on the playing fields, in the administrative decisions of educational institutions and in religious organizations."

Conference topics will include:
* Sport as American mythology
* Do sports build moral values?
* Gene doping, bioethics and religion
* The sacred in the world of sport
* Muscular Christianity


Keynote Speakers
Robert J. "Jack" Higgs is a professor emeritus at East Tennessee State University where he taught courses in American literature, southern and Appalachian literature and the literature of sports for 27 years.

He has authored several books, including the Pulitzer Prize-nominated God in the Stadium: Sports and Religion in America (1995). He recently co-authored a book with Michael Braswell, associate professor at the University of North Texas, entitled An Unholy Alliance: The Sacred and Modern Sports.

Martin E. Marty is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago Divinity School, where the Martin Marty Center has been founded to promote "public religion" endeavors.

He writes the M.E.M.O. column for Christian Century and is also the editor of the semi-monthly Context. The author of more than 50 books, Marty has centered his scholarly research in a multi-volume work entitled Modern American Religion.

Joseph L. Price is a professor in the department of religious studies at Whittier College and earned his doctorate in theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School. He recently authored From Season to Season: Sports as American Religion and is currently at work on two more books that apply religious studies to sports phenomena.

St. Olaf President Christopher Thomforde received his M. Div. from Yale University in Biblical studies, church history and philosophy. He completed his doctor of ministry degree at Princeton University with a dissertation on the theme of "College President as Prophet."

Thomforde has served as assistant chaplain and instructor in philosophy and religion at Colgate College, a parish pastor at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Dansville, N.Y., and chaplain at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa. He was president of Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan., before assuming the presidency at St. Olaf College in 2001.

Click here to register for the conference. Or e-mail conferences@stolaf.edu or call 800-726-6523 or 507-646-3043.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.