Displays of religious faith have become commonplace on America's baseball diamonds, basketball courts, football fields, and beyond. How did religion become so entwined with big-time sports in America? The Spirit of the Game provides the answer to this question by offering a sweeping history of the Christian athlete movement in the United States--and its impact on American religion and the religion of sports.

The spirit of the game was first nurtured on the playing fields of the English public school, and in the pages of Tom Brown's Schooldays- this Corinthian spirit was then exported around the world. The competitive spirit, the importance of fairness, the nobility of the gifted amateur seemed to sum up everything that was good about Britishness and the games they played. Today, sport is dominated by corruption, money, celebrity and players who are willing to dive in the box if it wins them a penalty. Yet, we still believe and talk about the game as if it had a higher moral purpose. Since the age of Thomas Arnold, Sport has been used to glorify dictatorships and was at the heart of cold war diplomacy. Prime Ministers, princes and presidents will do whatever they can to ensure that their country holds a major sporting tournament. Nelson Mandela saw the victory of the Rugby World Cup as essential to his hopes for the Rainbow Nation. Mihir Bose has lived his life around sport and in this book he tells the story of how Sport has lost its original spirit and how it has emerged in the 20th century to become the most powerful political tool in the world. With examples and stories from around the world including how the sport-hating Thomas Arnold become an icon; how a German manufacturer gave Jessie Owens a pair of shoes at the Berlin games of 1936 and went on to dominate the world of sport; how India stole cricket from the ICC; how an Essex car dealer become the most powerful man in Formula 1; and who really sold football out. Praise for Mihir Bose: 'Mihir Bose is India's CLR James.' Simon Barnes, The Times. 'Mihir's insider knowledge is unsurpassed' David Welch. 'His Olympic contacts are second to none. He knows everybody.' Sue Mott.

Cricket, law and the meaning of life ... In a readable, informed and absorbing discussion of cricket’s defining controversies – bodyline, chucking, ball-tampering, sledging, walking and the use of technology, among many others – David Fraser explores the ambiguities of law and social order in cricket. Cricket and the Law charts the interrelationship between cricket and legal theory – between the law of the game and the law of our lives – and demonstrates how cricket’s cultural conventions can escape the confines of the game to carry far broader social meanings. This engaging study will be enjoyed by lawyers, students of culture and cricket lovers everywhere.

Understanding Video Games is a crucial guide for newcomers to video game studies and experienced game scholars alike. This revised and updated third edition of the pioneering text provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of game studies, and highlights changes in the gaming industry, advances in video game scholarship, and recent trends in game design and development—including mobile, casual, educational, and indie gaming. In the third edition of this textbook, students will: Learn the major theories and schools of thought used to study games, including ludology and narratology; Understand the commercial and organizational aspects of the game industry; Trace the history of games, from the board games of ancient Egypt to the rise of mobile gaming; Explore the aesthetics of game design, including rules, graphics, audio, and time; Analyze the narrative strategies and genre approaches used in video games; Consider the debate surrounding the effects of violent video games and the impact of "serious games." Featuring discussion questions, recommended games, a glossary of key terms, and an interactive online video game history timeline, Understanding Video Games provides a valuable resource for anyone interested in examining the ways video games are reshaping entertainment and society.

Cricket is a sport which is currently undergoing a rapid and dramatic transformation. Traditionally thought of as an English summer game, limited in appeal to Britain and its Commonwealth, cricket has, in the past a few years, achieved a global profile. This is largely due to the development of a new TV-friendly format of the game: Twenty20 cricket. Indeed, through the economic and media interests promoting the Indian Premier League (IPL), the world’s richest Twenty20 tournament, cricket has belatedly ‘gone global’. The rapid rise of the IPL underlines that the economic and political characters within cricket are no longer the traditional elites in metropolitan centres but the businessmen of India and the media entrepreneurs world-wide who seek to shape new audiences for the game and create new marketing opportunities on a global scale. The contributions in this book fall into two broad categories. There are firstly those which explore the rapid growth of Twenty20, particularly the motors of change and the new directions that cricket is taking as a result of the Twenty20 revolution. Secondly, there are a number of contributions which chart the impact of Twenty20 on traditional elements of the game. This book was originally published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

This is an open access book. 2022 International Conference on Sport Science, Education and Social Development(SSESD2022)was held from July 15th to 17th in Kunming China. The objective of SSESD is to promote scientific information interchange by creating a platform to students, researchers, Practitioners, and academicians to present their ongoing researches on diverse themes ranging from Sport Science, Education and Social Development. Under the influence of the current COVID-19 epidemic, people pay more and more attention to physical health, scientific distance education of physical exercise, in the meantime, wisdom education provides a guarantee for people to acquire knowledge. SSESD aims to provide the opportunity for Engineers Academicians, Scientists, Researchers and students to share ideas and knowledge and to network with an international crowd and deliberate the practical challenges encountered and solutions adopted in respective domains worldwide. Thus, organizing committee invites all Industry Professional, delegates and students representing worldwide institutions, Government agencies, and other organizations, to take part in the International Conference on Sport Science, Education and Social Development.

For the first time, this book presents the original Arabic texts of Abd al-Ghan al-N bulus s letters, along with selected translations and fresh insights into the culture of correspondence, postal history, and main theological debates in the early modern period of Islam.

The most famous sports book in the world, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack has been published every year since 1864. The selected writings from the 161st edition contained in this eBook offer trenchant opinion, compelling features and an authoritative voice on the worldwide game. The Shorter Wisden is a distillation of what's best in its bigger brother – and the 2024 edition of Wisden is crammed, as ever, with the best writing in the game. Wisden's digital version includes the influential Notes by the Editor, and all the front-of-book articles. In essence, The Shorter Wisden is a glass of the finest champagne rather than the whole bottle. In an age of snap judgments, Wisden's authority and integrity are more important than ever. Yet again this year's edition is truly a “must-have” for every cricket fan. @WisdenAlmanack

Numinous Fields has its roots in a phenomenological understanding of perception. It seeks to understand what, beyond the mere sensory data they provide, landscape, nature, and art, both separately and jointly, may mean when we experience them. It focuses on actual or potential experiences of the numinous, or sacred, that such encounters may give rise to. This volume is multi-disciplinary in scope. It examines perceptions of place, space, nature, and art as well as perceptions of place, space, and nature in art. It includes chapters written by art curators, and historians and scholars in the fields of landscape, architecture, cultural geography, religious studies, philosophy, and art. Its chapters examine ideas, objects, and practices from the ancient time of Aboriginal Australians’ Dreaming through to the present. The volume is also multi-cultural in scope and includes chapters focussed on manifestations of the sacred in indigenous culture, in cultures influenced by each of the world’s major religions, and in the secular, contemporary world. Foreword by Jeff Malpas Contributors: Samer Akkach, James Bennett, Veronica della Dora, Alasdair Forbes, Virginia Hooker, Philip Jones, Russell Kelty, Muchammadun,Tracey Lock, Ellen Philpott-Teo, John Powell, Rebekah Pryor, Wendy Shaw.