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Can sport be regarded as ‘cultural liturgy’? Recognizing the significance of the liturgical frame for the social scientific study of sport

Abstract Several Christian thinkers have employed liturgical language in their attempts to theorize sport, and academic comparisons between sport and religious pageantry are common. While the natures of these proposals are varied, they all rely on the explicitly religious language of liturgy to communicate something significant about sport and its ethos. In this paper, current work on sport as liturgy is critically reviewed in order to tease out the significance of such liturgical language and its appropriateness for the study of sport. The concept of cultural liturgy is proposed as a way of recognizing the significance of the liturgical frame for studying sport while also serving as a useful construct for the social scientific study of sport.