Imago Dei Sports proposes that spirituality is interlocked in the athlete’s overall design and that the athlete’s entire personhood is invested in the contest. For the Christian athlete, sport offers a context in which they can integrate their faith and express their God-given design.
This notion rises from a Biblical worldview that stands on the belief that humankind is made in the “image of God” (imago Dei, Latin). As a result, our personhood is richly integrated into body, mind, and spirit (Genesis 1:27; Matthew 22:37; 1 Thessalonians 5:23, NIV). The phrase grounds our relationship with the Creator and the Christian athlete finds a causal connection between their God-given talent and the athletic setting.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE) wrote in his classic work Confessions:
Man is one of your creatures, Lord, and his instinct is to praise you…The thought of you stirs him so deeply that he cannot be content unless he praise you, because you made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you (Augustine, Conf. 1.1).
Hence, Imago Dei Sports seeks to resource athletes, coaches, and sport management professionals to better understand their role as God’s image bearers in the contemporary sports setting.
Imago Dei Sports 