ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses tensions between sport, masculinity and religiosity in the Promise Keepers' rhetoric and practice, as well as its implications for the development of Christian identity within the USA. It first reviews the rise of the Promise Keepers as well as the movement's social context. The chapter then provides a theological analysis of the tensions within Promise Keeper identity as it relates to the larger society generally and sport more specifically. It explores the Promise Keepers' application of sport rhetoric as well as the contradictions that arise through the use of sport to maintain identity whilst simultaneously attempting to develop new roles for men. A useful framework for analysing the different conceptions of the church/world binary can be found in the work of American theologian and Christian ethicist H. Richard Niebuhr. In the Christ Against Culture model, Niebuhr suggests that the counterpart of loyalty to Christ and the brothers is the rejection of cultural society.
