Book Description

Play, Sport, and Spirit Patrick Kelly, SJ Play, Sport, and Spirit retrieves a much needed ‘play ethic’ from Catholic cultural and theological sources and brings this into dialogue with evolutionary theory, contemporary philosophy and psychology to illuminate the human and spiritual meaning of sport and work. After a discussion of the marginalization of the play element in contemporary sport in the U.S., the author uses the work of cultural historian Johan Huizinga to understand the meaning of play and how it is related to culture, ritual, festival, and spirituality. Basic to this "play ethic" is an acceptance of play as a part of human life. For Aquinas, play is enjoyable and done for its own sake. However, the enjoyment we experience in play is directed to the "good of the player" in that it brings pleasure and relaxation. Using the work of scholars Gordon Burghardt (evolutionary psychology), Randolph Feezell (philosophy), and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (psychology) the book demonstrates that when sport is enjoyable and engaged in for its own sake (i.e., as play), it leads to human flourishing and openness to transcendence. In this way, the book provides a contemporary account of how play can be autotelic and yet benefit the human person, as Aquinas had claimed. The in-depth consideration of play in this book also illuminates our understanding of the human and spiritual meaning of work and vocation.