ABSTRACT
This chapter provides evidence of the way in which the historical relationship between sport and religion in Victorian Britain allowed notions of Britishness to be seen as synonymous with key facets of English national identity as a consequence of the values and practices of the English public schools. It addresses the formative and innovative role which the English public schools and the Protestant church in Britain played in the emergence and expansion of formalised sport. The chapter also presents an overview of the socio-cultural context against which the contours of the sport–religion relationship have been shaped and, in particular, the forces of secularisation that have swept through Western Europe over the past two centuries. It explores the extent to which commonsense readings of the relationship run the risk of conflating Britishness and English national identity amidst the social transformation and imperial expansion of the Victorian period.
