Rounding the Bases: Baseball and Religion in America

by Joseph L. Price

Overview

After identifying early conflicts between churches and baseball in the late-nineteenth century, Price examines the appropriation of baseball by the House of David, an early twentieth-century millennial Protestant community in southern Michigan. Turning then from historical intersections between base-ball and religion, two chapters focus on the ways that baseball reflects religious myths. First, the omphalos myth about the origin and ordering of the world is reflected in the rituals and rules of the game. Then the myth of curses is explored in the culture of superstition that underlies the game. At the heart of the book is a sustained argument about how baseball functions as an American civil religion, affirming and sanctifying American identity, especially during periods of national crises such as wars and terrorist attacks. Building on this analysis of baseball as an American civil religion, two chapters draw upon novels by W. P. Kinsella and David James Duncan to explore the sacramental potential of baseball and to align baseball with apocalyptic possibilities. The final chapter serves as a full confession, interpreting baseball affiliation stories as conversion narratives. In various ways Rounding the Bases charts new territory in the literature about baseball and religion. Unlike previous works (such as The Faith of Fifty Million) that merely assert that baseball, as the national pastime, is an American civil religion, or others (such as And God Said, “Play Ball”) that draw parallels between the Bible and baseball, this book develops a sustained sociological argument for the conclusion that baseball is “a distinct denomination of American civil religion.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780865549999
Publisher:	Mercer University Press
Publication date:	06/28/2006
Series:	Sports and Religion Ser.
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Joseph L. Price is the Genevieve Shaul Connick Professor of Religious Studies at Whittier College. Author and co-editor of several theological works, including A New Handbook of Christian Theology, he has also published numerous essays and books on sports and religion.

Table of Contents

Introduction: On Deck 1

1 Rounding the Bases: Baseball Intersecting Religion 10

2 Exercising Faith: Baseball for the House of David 47

3 The Pitcher's Mound as Cosmic Mountain: Baseball and Religious Myths 71

4 Conjuring Curses and Supplicating Spirits: Baseball's Culture of Superstitions 93

5 Safe at Home: Baseball as American Civil Religion 111

6 Fusing the Spirits: The Sacramental Power of Baseball 176

7 Now and There, Here and Then: Kinsella's Millenarian World of Baseball 200

8 Here I Cheer: Conversion Narratives of Baseball Fans 219

For Further Reading 239

Index 253