In a recent article, Gary Laderman, the director of Religion Dispatches, draws our attention to what might be the most significant religious display of the year: the rituals, beliefs, and passions surrounding the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Unlike many commentators, he is not interested in condemning these displays for their supposedly misplaced allegiance. He writes:
Isn’t there anything new under the sun, some fresher perspectives from which to view the religious situation of our world today? Can we take the religion of soccer seriously without having to prepare for the inevitable fire-and-brimstone sermons about glorifying idols or the anti-religious tirades of secular humanists seeking psychological explanations for misplaced passions?
Instead, he argues that scholars of religion can learn from the sacred quality of much that surrounds the World Cup. The media are increasingly covering religion as including things like soccer, phenomena that lie outside of the realm of monotheistic, institutionalized religion, a trend Laderman praises. Perhaps the rituals surrounding the World Cup matches—even in the U.S., where they are less central than in most of the world—constitute important forms of meeting the sacred in social life in the twenty-first century. As sources of transcendence and collective effervescence for the traditionally religious and irreligious alike, soccer matches may perform some of the functions of creating both nationalist identity and international solidarity in an increasingly global community.
Read more here.