Joventut, esport i religió: el moviment Muscular Christianity

Abstract

In this article the relations established from ancient times between Christianity and the world of sport are made evident. It is well known that the primitive Christianity used sportive metaphor for the transmission of the Christian Message. Thus, the Christian is seen as an authentic athlete of Christ who would obtain, after a just race or a loyal combat, its reward. On the basis of this tradition Thomas Arnold (1795-1842) cast the idea of the Christian gentlemen which, in its turn, had an influence on Charles Kingsley (1819-1857), sponsor of the Muscular Christianity movement that promoted the use of sport as a vehicle of evangelization. After the success of Thomas Hughes's (1822-1896) novel Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857), this movement spread throughout England and the United States, where YMCA stood out for its leading role in the regeneration of youth. All these initiatives were well known by Coubertin (1863-1937), who conferred an unequivocal religious dimension to the International Olympic Movement (re-established in 1896): the religion of the athletes.