Radical Orthodoxy and the Emergence of Spiritual Hero-Athletes: Examining Lance Armstrong's “Illness” Narrative

Abstract

This essay examines how stories of overcoming illness are important components of popular narratives, media representations, and cultural understandings surrounding American hero–athletes such as Lance Armstrong and his portrayal as a cancer survivor. Understood through the theology of radical orthodoxy, Armstrong's experience with cancer put him at the center of the global effort to fight cancer and, in turn, he arguably became a figure imbued with latent spiritualistic themes. This essay identifies, offers examples of, and critiques how illness narratives lend spiritual attractiveness to hero-athletes. The theory of radical orthodoxy, as presented in the writings of scholars such as Graham Ward and John Milbank, will be utilized to examine the hero-athlete, Armstrong. As Ward (2000, p. 214) states, hero-athletes, such as Armstrong, are examples of angelic hosts who “re-enchant” the world with a “theological imaginary.” In conclusion, while Armstrong's athletic accomplishments, illness, recovery, and subsequent charity work through the Livestrong Foundation may have some spiritually and religiously significant “imagery” with regard to legitimizing the “hero–athlete” rhetoric in the contemporary western sport context, when gazing through the lens of radical orthodoxy these activities are largely “spiritually empty” and “idolatrous in nature,”