Is Baseball Sacred?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-laderman/is-baseball-sacred_b_3033183.html

Gary Laderman
Chair of the Department of Religion, Emory University

Posted: 04/10/2013 1:12 pm

Springtime is here. The buds are blooming, the temperature is warming, and allergies are surging. It is also the beginning of one of the year's most profound and powerful religious seasons. No, I'm not talking about Easter for Christians, Passover for Jews, or the Spring Equinox for pagans. I'm talking Baseball.

How can a sport be religious, you ask? Am I simply talking about good Christian players who thank God for every win and pray when someone gets hurt? As with most religious activities, it's rather complicated to explain and requires, at least momentarily, a suspension of questions about true vs. false religion.

In a new book, "Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game" by John Sexton, president of New York University, along with Thomas Oliphant and Peter Schwartz, the connections between baseball and religious experience are compellingly presented to the reader. They argue that the game -- the game -- has a spiritual essence, like most religions, which is ineffable, or indescribable, but palpable and deeply meaningful for fans and fanatics.

As the title makes clear, "God" is at the heart of this spiritual essence, but it is important to note that Sexton, who demonstrates the benefits of studying religion comparatively and theologically, may not have the tradition-based biblical God the father in mind. The liturgical nature of the season; the hallowed spaces surrounding the "axis mundi" or sacred center of the baseball diamond; the philosophical and contemplative reveries associated with the sport -- all of these elements that we generally assume to "count" as religious elements are highlighted here to make a case about the spirituality embedded in the game.

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