Beyond Four Walls: Rethinking Religion in the Study of Sports Lori Latrice Martin Religion and sports are among the most important areas of American social life. Religion and sports are also among the most misunderstood and misrepresented areas of social life in America. It is no wonder then that scholarly research and public discourse at the intersection of religion and sports contains so many myths and so much misinformation. The way that scholars and others think about religion must change for research on religion and sports to advance. Work on religion and sports must center race beyond periods of heightened racial tension. Race is so connected to both religion and sports that one cannot adequately address one without addressing one or more of the others. Scholars who study religion and sports should move beyond the canons of their respective disciplines to embrace underutilized perspectives such as American Civil Religion, the politics of respectability, and racial realism. Understanding religion as an orientation as opposed to a social institution through one or more of the lenses mentioned above, will aid in our understanding of past, present, and future issues in the study of sports that will have theoretical, methodological, and public policy implications. These issues will likely include, at the very least, attention to the career and overall legacy of elite athletes like Serena Williams; developments in name, image, and likeness (NIL); attention to social justice; and diversity, equity, and inclusion. The future of the study of religion and sports will depend upon deepening our understanding of both religion and sports. For many people who study religion and sports, and for many in the general public, religion is a social institution. In other words, religion constitutes a set of social positions that are connected to social relations that perform the social role [End Page 9] of answering important questions about our existence, the meaning of life and death, among other matters. Symbols, rituals, and a belief system are also associated with religion when we think about it as a social institution. Consequently, research about religion and sports may examine the religious affiliation of athletes. The research in this area may explore the participation of certain denominations, especially in the Christian tradition, in sports and their respective motivations. Debates about whether or not athletic teams may be led in religious rituals by their coaches on the playing field might also be an area of inquiry. If we really wish to understand religion and sports we must think about religion more broadly. Many people who study religion and sports may not know the works of Charles Long. Dr. Charles Long was a religious studies scholar and cultural historian. He published the book Significations: Signs, Symbols, and Images in the Interpretation of Religion in the late 1980s. In it he provides a more expansive definition of religion than most scholars outside of religious studies, and perhaps inside of religious studies, are accustomed to using in their respective works. Long understands religion as an orientation. Religion is a way of viewing the world and an individual’s or group’s place in it. This is a powerful way of understanding religion because it frees scholars from simply focusing on things like signs, symbols, and images in order to take a deeper dive and explore more of the complexities and nuances associated with understanding one’s place in the world and how that might influence other areas of social life, including sports. Scholars who study sports have yet to agree on a definition of sports. Some might argue that sports involve some form of physical competition that is well organized, well established, officially governed, and results in material and nonmaterial rewards. Others might contend that there is far too much overlap between sport, play, and spectacle to truly define sports. The definition given here may exclude emerging sports and popular activities lacking a formalized recognized governing structure. Scholars interested in the study of sports should consider expanding their understanding of what constitutes a sport and move beyond simply reifying existing definitions by limiting oneself to such sports organizations as AAU, Pop Warner, Little League, NCAA, and the Olympics, for examples of what is a sport. We must...