Touchdowns for Jesus and Other Signs of Apocalypse: Lifting the Veil on Big-Time Sports

Why do sports matter so much to so many people? And why should we care? Far from being a distraction or a trivial pastime, sports tell us deep truths about ourselves. Big-time sports are a particularly potent mirror for humanity-reflecting both our promising possibilities and our demonic distortions. Theologian (and football coach's wife) Marcia Mount Shoop invites you to take a closer look at the hold that sports have on us. Touchdowns for Jesus takes you beneath the veil in some of the most challenging issues in sports today: fanaticism, sexism, racism, and abuse of power. And beneath the lifted veil you also encounter wisdom about how we can find our way back to what is most life-giving about sports. If you love sports, or if you just wonder why others do, Touchdowns for Jesus will give you a whole new way to view the games people play.

The Rev. Marcia W. Mount Shoop, PhD, is the author of Let the Bones Dance: Embodiment and the Body of Christ (2010) and a blogger on faith, family, and football at www.marciamountshoop.com. She and her husband, Coach John Shoop, have been in the world of big-time sports for over twenty years.

See Touchdowns for Jesus in the news:
First Things
Radio interview "The Game," Chicago
Englewood Review of Books

The Christian Century
The News and Observer, on UNC scandal
The Thoughtful Christian, on Intimate Partner Violence