by Joshua R. Colson and Brandon K. Presley
In the United States, and much of the world, sports are a major part of life. A 2023 survey found that the average American spends just over four hours per week watching sports-related content.[1] Extrapolated over one year, this average amounts to eight days of sports watching. To illustrate further how invested Americans are in sports, Americans collectively wagered a staggering 119.8 billion dollars on sports betting in 2023.[2] While the moral issues surrounding sports betting falls outside the scope of this article, they certainly demonstrate how deeply intertwined sports are with American life.
Given the pervasive nature of sports in American life, Christians could easily act reflexively in their athletic involvement. Instead, we should think about enjoying and participating in sports from a Christian worldview, asking things like: What does the Scripture say about sports? How did believers reading the Scripture before us grapple with the relationship between faith and sports? In consideration of these two questions, how should we approach sports? This article is the first in a series in which we will explore the complex, historical relationship between Christianity and sports. First, we will examine the relationship between sports and Christianity from the first century up until the time of Constantine.
Sport in the Scripture
When we turn to the text of the Bible, we find several passages employing athletic similes and metaphors. In the Scripture the first-century church read, King David likens the creation’s glorification of God to “a champion, rejoicing to run his course” (Psalm 19:5, NIV).[3] Then in the New Testament itself, we encounter numerous athletic metaphors for the Christian life. Most famously, the author of Hebrews urges Christians to “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely and . . . run with endurance the race that is set before us” (12:1). Paul, too, made use of racing metaphors in his writings (1 Corinthians 9:24–27; Galatians 2:2; 5:7; Philippians 2:16; 2 Timothy 4:7–8) as well as boxing (1 Corinthians 9:26) and wrestling metaphors (Colossians 4:12). The New Testament authors draw on such athletic imagery to stress the importance of discipline and endurance in the Christian life (1 Timothy 4:7–10; 2 Timothy 2:5) as well as the receipt of a crown, or prize, on the last day (Philippians 3:13–14).
Do these Scriptural athletic metaphors provide any insight into how the earliest Christians thought about participating in sports? Stephen Liggins rightly cautions that these Biblical snippets primarily exist for illustrative purposes rather than “seeking to teach us about whether, why, how, and how much we should play sport.”[4]
The fact of the matter is that New Testament writers lived in a world where, not unlike our day, sports were pervasive and thus made for universally understandable illustrations. Take, for instance, the ancient city of Corinth that hosted the Isthmian games. Patrick Kelly explains that the Isthmian games were one of several Panhellenic games that were held every other year. “These were intensely competitive games,” and the athletes who competed in them put everything they had to winning. . . . they were disciplined in their training and unwavering in their commitment, persevering when they were tired, injured, or when the contest was in doubt.” Kelly explains further that the winner of these games received a “wreath made of pine leaves or wild celery.”[5] How appropriate, then, that when writing to Corinthian believers, Paul should liken their Christian lives to disciplining themselves, running a race, and obtaining an everlasting wreath (1 Corinthians 9:24–27).[6]
That sports easily lent themselves to illustrations says little about the appropriateness or inappropriateness of sports themselves. Nevertheless, it is difficult to imagine that the apostolic writers, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, would have employed such metaphors if sports were intrinsically sinful. To the contrary, we know Paul believed that “bodily training is of some value” (1 Timothy 4:8), and, although our purposes at this point are more historical than theological, we could make an excellent biblical-theological case for sports.[7] Of course, early Christians did take issue with sports in their particular context. Yet as we shall see, these issues had little to do with physical, athletic activity itself and much to do with the idolatry and immorality that permeated formal Roman games.[8]
Christians and Roman Sport
As already noted, sports were a major part of Greco-Roman life in the first century. Not unlike people today, Romans enjoyed watching and playing an array of sports such as harpastum (similar to the modern game of rugby), boxing, and chariot racing.[9] Foot racing and wrestling were on the list of ancient Roman athletic contests as well. Generally speaking, these sporting events were relatively non-violent and benign in se. Yet the organized athletic contests of the day had definite religious overtones with roots in ancient Greece, where the Olympic games were tied to worship of the gods in the Greek pantheon. In fact, the inaugural Olympic event, held in 776 B.C., was a 600 ft race dedicated to Zeus. As the Romans appropriated Olympic sports, the games became further entrenched as spectator events tied to worship of the gods, leading to the creation of religious rites and holy days surrounding the athletic event.[10]
Beyond the religious overtones of ancient sporting events, Romans also enjoyed other games that were downright brutal and murderous: specifically, the gladiatorial games, which were characterized by fights to the death. Of course, the gladiatorial games were not void of religious significance. Indeed, they were a uniquely religious practice that likely dated back to the Etruscans before being taken up by the Romans.[11] But Christians found the violence and total disregard for human life particularly troubling.
As the Romans adopted and altered the games, they became major spectacles which generally involved the slaughter of prisoners of war, slaves, or criminals. Up to 50,000 spectators regularly filled the Roman Colosseum (opened in A.D. 80) to see gladiators fight to the death, prisoners fed to wild beasts, and others torn asunder.[12] Roman historians like Seneca the Younger recorded the brutality of these games, writing:
The men have no defensive armour. They are exposed to blows at all points, and no one ever strikes in vain. . . . In the morning they throw men to the lions and the bears; at noon, they throw them to the spectators. The spectators demand that the slayer shall face the man who is to slay him in his turn; and they always reserve the latest conqueror for another butchering. The outcome of every fight is death, and the means are fire and sword.[13]
In the Roman world, the games were bloody and brutal.
Consequently, most early Christian writings strongly condemn participation in the games. Moreover, as Christians grew in number, they began to be targeted by the Empire, leading them to become the object of entertainment themselves. Between being torn to pieces, tossed and gored by bulls, or fed to half-starved lions, Christians were slaughtered in major hubs of the Empire (Lyon, Vienne, etc.) for little more than sheer entertainment.[14]
Fights to the death or torturing a fellow man for entertainment is antithetical to Christian morality. Because of the games’ entanglement with paganism and their brutal nature, many early Christians were against Christians taking part in the games. One early church father, Theophilus of Antioch (ca. d. 183–85), specifically addressed gladiatorial games, writing:
Consider, therefore, whether those who teach such things can possibly live indifferently and be commingled in unlawful intercourse, or, most impious of all, eat human flesh, especially when we are forbidden so much as to witness shows of gladiators, lest we become partakers and abettors of murders. But neither may we see the other spectacles, lest our eyes and ears be defiled, participating in the utterances there sung.[15]
Quite obviously, Christians recognized the evils of joyfully cheering while another person was killed. Tertullian also wrote against taking part in the spectacles. In addition to the games being murderous, Tertullian contended that Greco-Roman athletic spectacles were idolatrous, leading to the conclusion that sporting events, at least within the Greco-Roman context, were generally irreconcilable with the Christian faith.[16]
Conclusion
When looking at sports and the early church, the water is murky. Broadly speaking, Christians were in opposition to the Roman games—and for good reason. These games were violent and dedicated to the worship of pagan gods. Thus, one can very easily see why many Christians detested such events. This background makes contemporary analysis somewhat difficult. On the one hand, Paul employs athletic images throughout his epistles suggesting there could be something redeeming about sports and athletics; at the same time, early church Christians generally maintained distance from formalized Greco-Roman sport.
Where do these points leave us? Might sports be acceptable if they are decoupled from pagan worship and brutal murder games? While the early church provides an important part of the picture regarding the relationship between Christianity and sports, it does not give the whole picture. In the next article, we will examine how Christians continued engaging with sports as Rome began to soften toward Christianity.
About the Author(s):
Joshua R. Colson is a native of Southern Illinois where he currently resides with his wife, Hannah. Joshua serves as the pastor of Angelville Community Church, and as an adjunct instructor at Welch College. He holds two degrees from Welch College (B.S., Biblical Studies and General Christian Ministry; M.A., Theology and Ministry) and one from Vanderbilt University (M.T.S.). His academic interests include systematic theology, church history, and politics. In his spare time, Joshua can be found on a golf course, in a tree stand, or taking in a St. Louis Cardinals ballgame.
Brandon K. Presley and his wife, Dakota, serve as the resident directors for the men’s dorm at Welch College. Additionally, Brandon is serving as the interim pastor for Rejoice Free Will Baptist Church in Antioch, Tennessee. He holds an M.A. in Theology and Ministry from Welch College and an M.A. in History from Arizona State University. He and his wife are the proud parents to their one-year-old daughter, Mary Kathryn. Brandon enjoys teaching history, reading literature, and American politics.
[1] Elena Ivanovska, “America’s Sports Watching Habits,” Time2Play, April 28, 2023, https://time2play.com/blog/americas-sports-watching-habits/.
[2] “2023 Commercial Gaming Revenue Reaches $66.5B, Marking Third-Straight Year of Record Revenue,” American Gaming Association, February 20, 2024, https://www.americangaming.org/new/2023-commercial-gaming-revenue-reaches-66-5b-marking-third-straight-year-of-record-revenue/.
[3] All Scripture references, unless otherwise noted, as here, will be from the English Standard Version.
[4] Stephen Liggins, “The Spiritually Wise Sportsperson: Christianity and Sport (1),” The Gospel Coalition, October 11, 2020, https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-spiritually-wise-sportsperson-christianity-and-sport-1/.
[5] Patrick Kelly, S.J., Catholic Perspective on Sports: From Medieval to Modern Times (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 2012), 95–96.
[6] Paul was not the first to employ athletic metaphors in the ancient world. Kelly observes that “Philosophers in antiquity thought that the dynamics of the virtuous life could be illustrated using the characteristics of athletic contests as metaphors. . . . [therefore] Paul was doing something that was common among the philosophers of antiquity.” The difference between the two is that philosophers viewed a virtuous life as the crowning achievement whereas Paul “compared the victory on the athletic field with the final victory of the resurrection body itself” (Kelly, 96–97). Donald G. Kyle goes so far as to suggest that Paul picked up the philosophical illustrations “to attract possible pagan converts by ‘speaking their language’” (Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World [Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2015], 330). Kyle’s claim seems tenuous given that Paul’s epistles were written, not evangelistically to unbelievers, but for the edification of believers.
[7] We commend the following sources as good places to begin building a biblical-theology of sport: Stephen Liggins, “The Spiritually Wise Sportsperson”; Jeremy R. Treat, “More than a Game: A Theology of Sport,” Themelios 40, 3 (2015): 392–403; and Greg Ketteman and Gregory Fawbush, “Sports and Recreation,” in Christians in Culture: Cultivating a Christian Worldview for all of Life, ed. Matthew Steven Bracey and Christopher Talbot (Gallatin, TN: Welch College Press, 2023), 271–84.
[8] Treat mentions contests being “dedicated to pagan gods” and competition “in the nude” as examples of idolatry and immorality unacceptable to Christians (“More than a Game,” 393).
[9] Erin Schott, “Beyond the Gladiator: a Guide to Ancient Roman Sports,” Discentes: Penn’s Classical Studies Publication, September 17, 2023,
[10] “Religion at the Olympics, from ancient Greece to London,” The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, July 30, 2012, https://reporter.lcms.org/2012/religion-at-the-olympics-from-ancient-greece-to-london/.
[11] Nicolaus of Damascus, quoted in Katherine E. Welch, The Roman Amphitheatre: From its Origins to the Colosseum (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 14.
[12] Christopher Kelly, The Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 79.
[13] Seneca, as quoted by Donald G. Kyle, Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome (New York: Routledge, 1998), 91–92.
[14] Kelly, The Roman Empire, 84.
[15] Theophilus of Antioch, At the Theatres, trans. Marcus Dods, from Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume 2, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe (Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885), revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/02043.htm.
[16] Tertullian, De Spectaculis, trans. S. Thelwall, from Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe (Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885), revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0303.htm. Further, as Donald G. Kyle writes, Tertullian “protested that all forms of Greco-Roman spectacles were idolatrous . . . rooted in their origins in worship of the dead, motivated by Satan, and incompatible with Christian piety” (Sport and Spectacle, 331).
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