Revisiting methodological basis of religiousity research in sports

Abstract

Sport is still a «blind spot» in religious studies; meanwhile, the phenomenon of modern sport, from the point of view of its sociocultural determination, value and semantic content, is of great interest to the sciences of religious rituals. At first glance, the empirical facts about sport are quite ordinary. For all participants and attentive observers, physical efforts and sport results are fed by carefully constructed worlds of sacred stories, symbols and personal rituals. The increasing number of athletes involved in sports activities claim the priority of spiritual growth in the process of training and competitions over physical metamorphoses. Champions talk frankly about their religious views and demonstrate confessional affiliation, building bridges between personal rituals and their victories or defeats, which makes it possible to think about including sports in the field of religious studies. The objective of the present research is to analyze the theoretical and methodological foundations of studying the phenomenon of athletes’ religious commitment, as well as adapting existing approaches to distinguishing types of religious and non-religious individuals, taking into account the specifics of this group. Based on the results of empirical studies of the last twenty years developed in Russian sociology of religion, the author reveals their potential for solving urgent problems. In this article, the author focuses on the methods of studying the religiosity of modern athletes. One of the problems is the construction of classification demonstrating athletes’ religiosity taking into account the specifics of their activities, as well as the possibilities of representing their beliefs through religious practices before / during / after competitions.