POWER, PRAYER, AND PLAY: TRACING CHRISTIAN HEGEMONY IN SPORT THROUGH CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Abstract

This dissertation explores the relationship between Christianity and sport, particularly those housed in educational spaces to better understand how sport serves as a site for evangelism and reproduction of Christian hegemony in the United States. With a grounding in Antonio Gramsci’s (1971/2022) theory of hegemony as a theoretical framework, this dissertation is comprised of three independent critical discourse analysis (CDA) projects. Each CDA project is designed as a free-standing scholarly article that provides one entry point for a large, dense conversation. The first article is an examination of Christianity within the team dynamics of the University of Oklahoma softball program. This article considers how the shared Christian faith of the team’s head coach influences players, how the players impact each other’s faith development, and how the verbalization of faith impacts fans and viewers to normalize Christianity through intercollegiate softball. The second article provides an analysis of texts provided by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) to critically examine how FCA strives not only to influence the faith development of individuals but also to deputize athletes and coaches as future evangelists. This article considers the prevalence of FCA in high school, college, and professional sports and how FCA’s demonstrative expectation of all believers to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ serves to reproduce Christian hegemony via sport. Finally, the third article examines the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court case Kennedy v. Bremerton School District to consider how the majority opinion of the Court wields language, discourse, and power to maintain Christian hegemony in the United States. This critical discourse analysis of the text from the Kennedy ruling uncovers the finality of Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, wherein the societal normalization of Christianity is further protected and supported by the State’s legal apparatus. This dissertation concludes with a final chapter, which serves to recontextualize all three articles together, to consider what additional findings may be present when all articles are placed in conversation together. This synthesis of findings across all three articles also allows for consideration of what future and continuing research is needed to provide deeper insights into this large and complex phenomenon. Through the three CDA projects, this dissertation provides three separate but connected avenues for considering sport as a site for reproduction, reinforcement, and maintenance of Christian hegemony in the U.S. and provides a springboard for future research in this area of study.