Picture

Welcome! I am a historian, author, and educator who focuses most of my time thinking about the intersection of sports and Christianity. I happen to have the perfect job for this: Dire​ctor of the Faith & Sports Institute at Baylor's Truett Seminary. 

For media inquiries, speaking engagements, or any other questions, you can find my contact information in the menu above. To learn more about my research projects, publications, and media interviews, check out my CV or visit one of the pages above. You can also follow me on X/twitter: @p_emory, Threads/Instagram: @paulemoryputz, or subscribe to my Substack newsletter, Spirit of the Game.

My first book, The Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big-Time Sports, was published in October 2024 by Oxford University Press. You can order your copy here. Learn more about the book from the stories/articles and reviews below. And check out the two videos to get a sense of the work I do and my approach to studying sports and Christianity.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE SPIRIT OF THE GAME
​
“Paul Putz demonstrates with fresh examples and penetrating prose the power of the ties between sports and religion. I firmly believe that The Spirit of the Game is the finest, most nuanced study of the subject. If it’s not the final word on sport and religion, it sets the bar high.” - Randy Roberts, Distinguished Professor of History, Purdue University, Co-author of Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X
“Spirit of the Game will prompt you to rethink everything about sports and Christianity or encourage you to think about it for the first time. Filled with meticulous research, helpful frameworks, and riveting stories, this book will be a welcome read for both students of history and sports enthusiasts. It’s game on for faith and sports!” - Jemar Tisby, Professor of History, Simmons College, New York Times bestselling author of The Color of Compromise and How to Fight Racism
“Spirit of the Game is a much needed historical investigation of American Christianity and sports from the 1920s to the early 2000s. Through careful analysis of the multiple voices contributing to the Christian Athlete movement, Putz shows both the power and the precarity of those Christians hoping to shape and/or participate in big-time sports. Unlike their muscular Christian forerunners, Christians in the age of big-time sports did not dictate the culture or infrastructure of sport but demonstrated an ongoing desire to belong in the pluralistic space of US sports—a paradox that Putz uses to teach us much about American Christianities’ evolving relationship with gender, race, and commerce. This book provides a new bedrock for future investigations of Christianity and sport in the US and is essential reading for sports historians, historians of American religion, and scholars of religion and sport.” - Annie Blazer, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, William & Mary, Author of Playing for God: Evangelical Women and the Unintended Consequences of Sports Ministry
“Putz weaves together an incredible range of characters and athletic endeavors to show that it is impossible to adequately tell the story of 20th-century American sports without paying serious attention to religion. He shows how the playing field, the basketball court, the racetrack—and every other athletic arena—were crucial battlegrounds in all the great cultural and theological battles of the century, from arguments over evangelism and anxieties about masculinity to white supremacy and the civil rights movement. A tour de force.” - Molly Worthen, Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Author of Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism
“This is a superb book. Putz has given us a first-rate history of both modern American Christianity and sports, delving into their complex interactions, shared cultures, and arenas of contention. The Spirit of the Game is particularly noteworthy for its expansive explorations of influential ‘middlebrow’ Protestant culture and religious conflicts over racial justice in the realm of athletics. Well-written and convincingly argued, this book should find a wide audience among scholars, students, and athletes.” - Aaron Griffith, Assistant Professor of American Church History, Duke Divinity School, Author of God’s Law and Order: The Politics of Punishment in Evangelical America
“In Spirit of the Game, Paul Putz delivers a masterful exploration of the seemingly inseparable intermarriage of American Protestantism and big-time sports, revealing how touchdown prayers, postgame testimonies, and Christian symbols became ingrained in the sports landscape. Spanning from the 1920s to the present, Putz delivers a sprawling, layered, and compelling narrative on the ‘power and precarity’ of Protestant perspectives on sports that captivates readers from start to finish.” - Arthur Remillard, Professor of Religious Studies, Saint Francis University, Co-editor of Gods, Games, and Globalization: New Perspectives on Religion and Sport
Proudly powered by Weebly