ABSTRACT
In the second half of the nineteenth century, the marriage of Christian religious ideals and the philosophy of physical culture established a cultural ideology stressing the importance of sports participation and physical prowess that remains in Western sport today. Contemporary theorists interested in sport have detailed the pivotal role the muscular Christian movement has had in shaping Western perceptions of sport and physical exercise (Ladd and Mathison 1999; Putney 2001; MacAloon 2006). The blending of religion and sports philosophy created clear and justified connections between the norms and values of Christian theology and physical activity. Religious sports movements are evidence of shifts in how Western societies conceive of the body, physical activity, and the fundamental way human beings perceive themselves in the world.1 Though Europe maintained a predominantly Christian population, there were non-Christians2 whose theological epistemologies were not as open to the physical exercise movements of the time; in this light, this essay focuses on Jewish tradition and the physical movements that arose from it in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Within fifty years of muscular Christianity’s establishment, muscular Judaism, a related
“physical” movement, emerged. In 1897 Jewish physician and Zionist Max Nordau called for the physical education of the Jewish people, with the aim of rescuing Eastern and Central European Jews3 from their disadvantaged social circumstances. Yet muscular Judaism, as an established movement, did not last or become the overwhelming physical view of European Jews because of two limiting conditions. First, European Jews had historically been barred from participating in athletic programs because of the social stigmas associated with being Jewish and therefore non-athletic. Second, within the Jewish community there was a negative perception of athleticism contributing to the cultural disconnect between Jews and nineteenth-century European physical culture. The overall social perception of Jews as weak and passive was thus preserved, especially when compared to the physically active, combatant, and muscular Christian standard. This chapter explores the traditional Jewish anti-athletic gender ideology and discusses the
emergence of muscular Judaism,4 its predecessors and lasting effects. Readers should understand that muscular Judaism’s overall goal was for social improvement within communities, while muscular Christianity aimed for spiritual purity. Also explored is the modern turn toward using sport for social and spiritual improvement. Ultimately this study is about sport and religion, a
historical and cultural exploration of the normativity of physical activity and the role of sport within religious communities.
