ABSTRACT
Following recent debates on the relationship between “God,” “ethics,” and issues of “social justice” within sporting locales, this article contends that Christian ethics and the biblical mandate of social justice have important contributions to make to broader understandings of sport and sport ethics. The aim of the article is to (1) map the emergence of the concept of social justice within academic, social, and political discourse; (2) examine the metaphysical anchors of sport ethics; (3) explore how a Christian framework of metaphysics might be understood within sport and sport ethics; and (4) highlight how key dimensions of the sporting experience, i.e., play and embodiment, might impact theological understandings of ethics and social justice. The article concludes by suggesting that a Christian metaphysical vision has much to offer in reforming sport by grounding it within a Trinitarian theology, borne out of a biblical description of a perfectly “just,” Creator God.
