Monthly Archive for December, 2011

Kim Jong-il, the Sportsman

Published on December 31, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

By  Jeré Longman, The New York Times

Kim Jong-il and his son and successor Kim Jong-un, second from left, applauding during the inaugural ceremony of the army's sports complex.

In the political world, Kim Jong-il of North Korea was a despot and nuclear antagonist. In the sporting world, he might have been the only guy ever to wear platform shoes, a bouffant hairdo and “Dear Leader” embroidered on his bowling shirt.

In his first match at Pyongyang Lanes, Kim bowled a perfect 300, according to state-run news media, which did not say whether the bumpers were raised. But that is nothing compared with the five holes in one and 38 under par that Kim reportedly shot in his maiden round of golf. No word on whether the course included a windmill, lion’s head and pop-up gopher.

Of course, in a closed, isolated nation like North Korea, it is difficult to separate the milk of fact from the crème of fiction. Some accounts had Kim shooting 11 aces, not merely five.

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Image: Associated Press via The New York Times

Hockey as a Religion: The Montreal Canadiens

Published on December 19, 2011 in Book and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Sport is all about play and game, aesthetic and strength, passion and emotion, challenge and rivalry. But because sometimes players and fans look for a little extra help from God, gods, spirits or any other Supreme Being, sport is also a matter of beliefs and Faith. Often, sport uses religion if the sport itself does not become a religion first.

Since 2008, the Protestant Theologian Olivier Bauer, a former hockey goaltender, is carefully studying the religious aspects of the Montreal Canadiens. In his book, Olivier Bauer reveals how the Montreal Canadiens becomes a religion, specifies which kind of religion it is, and explains how it is interrelated with Quebec’s Catholicism. From a theological point of view, he analyses two ways of practicing the Montreal Canadiens Religion, shows why both ways are idolatry, denounces the weakness of such a religion, and pleads for an evangelical use of the Montreal Canadiens.

Based on the Montreal Canadiens, Olivier Bauer explains how sport becomes a religion, but he also critics the religion that sport offers.

On the religious aspects of the Montreal Canadiens, Olivier Bauer has published an essay: Une théologie du Canadien de Montréal (Bayard, 2011); with Jean-Marc Barreau he has directed an edited book: La religion du Canadien de Montréal (Fides, 2009). On the food in the Bible, he has wrote a novel: Between Steeple and Stove; A Huguenot gourmet (free download from Papyrus, Université de Montréal Institutional Repository:http://hdl.handle.net/1866/2683).