Author: Dan Flanagan
Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
ISBN: 163985746X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 151
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Book Description
There are a number of baseball players who live out a profound faith. There are also people of faith who love the game of baseball. To find people who understand the nuances of the game of baseball through a framework of theology is unique. A Theologian and a Baseball Fan: What Could Go Wrong? explores aspects of the game of baseball that evoke images from biblical stories and theological themes. Using a theological framework to analyze the game of baseball provides a much more interesting, if not deeper, experience of the game. It is much more than a game from this perspective. It is much more than life. Baseball becomes a reflection of the deepest meaning of life. Both baseball and faith can be described as journeys. The journey of faith begins in the wilderness as we pursue the call of God in our lives. The journey of baseball comes on two levels--one as a player striving to become a major leaguer and two as a fan whose love of baseball may be generational or dream inspired or both. We begin with the journeys of faith and baseball in section 1. Section 2 looks at the social and cultural context of faith and baseball. Both have experienced and initiated social change. Section 3 identifies how baseball and faith deal with rule breakers or sinners. Section 4 shows the relationship between baseball and faith in their unusual personalities and goals of perfection. Section 5 is a potpourri of theological images that can be found in baseball. Finally, any theological discussion requires consideration of sacrament. Maybe surprisingly, there are sacramental images in baseball. On one level, A Theologian and a Baseball Fan: What Could Go Wrong? is an autobiography of Dan Flanagan. He traces how he was first introduced to baseball through his playing days and into his professional involvement in broadcasting, which gave him access to major league baseball in a way he was unable to achieve as a player. His multiple universes of interest come together in this book. His years of biblical teaching is evident. The breadth of his reading adds interest. His years of playing the game provides a flavor of legitimacy of one who knows the game of baseball. A Theologian and a Baseball Fan: What Could Go Wrong? will challenge you and entertain you as a baseball fan and as a person of faith. It will expand your love of both!
Author: John Sexton
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101609737
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 267
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Book Description
The president of New York University offers a love letter to America’s most beloved sport and a tribute to its underlying spirituality. For more than a decade, John Sexton has taught a wildly popular New York University course about two seemingly very different things: religion and baseball. Yet Sexton argues that one is actually a pathway to the other. Baseball as a Road to God is about touching that something that lies beyond logical understanding. Sexton illuminates the surprisingly large number of mutual concepts shared between baseball and religion: faith, doubt, conversion, miracles, and even sacredness among many others. Structured like a game and filled with riveting accounts of baseball’s most historic moments, Baseball as Road to God will enthrall baseball fans whatever their religious beliefs may be. In thought-provoking, beautifully rendered prose, Sexton elegantly demonstrates that baseball is more than a game, or even a national pastime: It can be a road to enlightenment.
Author: Mariano Rivera
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316400750
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 275
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Book Description
The greatest relief pitcher of all time shares his extraordinary story of survival, love, and baseball. Mariano Rivera, the man who intimidated thousands of batters merely by opening a bullpen door, began his incredible journey as the son of a poor Panamanian fisherman. When first scouted by the Yankees, he didn't even own his own glove. He thought he might make a good mechanic. When discovered, he had never flown in an airplane, had never heard of Babe Ruth, spoke no English, and couldn't imagine Tampa, the city where he was headed to begin a career that would become one of baseball's most iconic. What he did know: that he loved his family and his then girlfriend, Clara, that he could trust in the Lord to guide him, and that he could throw a baseball exactly where he wanted to, every time. With astonishing candor, Rivera tells the story of the championships, the bosses (including The Boss), the rivalries, and the struggles of being a Latino baseball player in the United States and of maintaining Christian values in professional athletics. The thirteen-time All-Star discusses his drive to win; the secrets behind his legendary composure; the story of how he discovered his cut fastball; the untold, pitch-by-pitch account of the ninth inning of Game 7 in the 2001 World Series; and why the lowest moment of his career became one of his greatest blessings. In The Closer, Rivera takes readers into the Yankee clubhouse, where his teammates are his brothers. But he also takes us on that jog from the bullpen to the mound, where the game -- or the season -- rests squarely on his shoulders. We come to understand the laserlike focus that is his hallmark, and how his faith and his family kept his feet firmly on the pitching rubber. Many of the tools he used so consistently and gracefully came from what was inside him for a very long time -- his deep passion for life; his enduring commitment to Clara, whom he met in kindergarten; and his innate sense for getting out of a jam. When Rivera retired, the whole world watched -- and cheered. In The Closer, we come to an even greater appreciation of a legend built from the ground up.
Author: Robert E. Neale
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Play
Languages : en
Pages : 200
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Book Description
Author: Joseph L. Price
Publisher: Mercer University Press
ISBN: 9780865546943
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272
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Book Description
In From Season to Season: Sports as American Religion, nine scholars of religion and theology explore the relationship between religion and sports in American popular culture and the role of sports as religion.
Author: Bryan Berghoef
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1621893588
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 151
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Book Description
From London to New York to Ann Arbor, people are gathering in pubs and bars to communicate, connect, and learn from one another over the topic of religion, of all things. In Pub Theology, pastor, writer, and pub theologian Bryan Berghoef draws from his own experience in one such setting in northern Michigan. Berghoef contends that for too long the church has insisted on setting the terms for how one can find and encounter God. Yet what if God is to be found in places we haven't been looking at all: in a coworker who doesn't believe in God, in a Buddhist neighbor, in a friend who prefers a yoga studio to a sanctuary? This book will move readers to shift toward a more chastened, humble, and inviting faith. A faith that seeks not to teach, but to learn; not to speak, but to listen. A faith that will have a seat at the table in the important religious conversations our world is having. Real-life stories gleaned from conversations and encounters during pub theology gatherings, combined with the author's own experience in grappling with these issues, make for an intriguing and enlightening read. So what are you waiting for? Pull up a chair and join the conversation!
Author: Christopher Hodge Evans
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 9780664223052
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 318
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Book Description
This volume features essays by religion scholars who analyze the relation of baseball and theology in American culture. Topics include issues of national identity, baseball and civil religion, baseball as a metaphor and more.
Author: James S. Currie
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1621893219
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 85
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Book Description
Jesus used parables to teach his disciples certain truths about the gospel. The parables employed word pictures, such as of planting seeds and other agricultural images, that were familiar to his listeners. What kind of imagery could be used today to talk about the gospel? Baseball, "America's pastime," might be one source of such familiar images. In this book Currie has attempted to find theological themes and to describe the gospel in the sport of baseball.
Author: June Bingham
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 9780819187314
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 436
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Book Description
Carefully researched and written with extraordinary vitality, this biography of Reinhold Niebuhr reveals the man in all of his humanity, warmth and charm, as well as his intellectual prowess as a theological giant. The author, who knew Niebuhr well, chronicles his career and contributions to ethics, theology and political thought. This classic is of enduring value to students of ethics, philosophy and theology and political thought and to anyone anxious to grasp the essence of this foremost philosophical theologian of the 20th century. Originally published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1961.
Author: Mike Piazza
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439150230
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 384
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Book Description
The twelve-time All-Star catcher describes the inspiration he gleaned from his self-made father, his early career with the Dodgers, his memorable 2000 World Series with the Mets, and the controversies that have marked his career.
