Meet Baylor’s nationally recognized expert on faith & sports
Why do sports matter so much? Why do fans invest so much of themselves in their favorite teams? And why do faith and sports so often intersect?
Those are the kinds of questions Dr. Paul Putz loves to explore as a historian of religion, sports and American culture. It’s also why national media outlets have Putz on speed dial for his expertise on the intersection of sports and Christianity, including how sports provide unique opportunities to explore timeless questions about faith, purpose and community.
“Sports matter because people matter,” he says. “When we understand how sports shape people’s lives, we have an opportunity to help shape those experiences for the better.”
A pastor’s son from small-town Nebraska and a former college basketball player, Putz today is Assistant Professor of Christianity and Sports, the Harold and Dottie Riley Chair in Sports Ministry and Chaplaincy, and director of the Faith & Sports Institute at Baylor’s Truett Seminary. His lifelong interest in how sports shape communities, identities and beliefs — and how faith in return has influenced the world of athletics — led to his first book, The Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big-Time Sports, and his forthcoming follow-up, Jesus and James Naismith: A History of Basketball and Christianity from Origins to the NBA, set to be published in 2027.
From how faith reveals itself at the world’s biggest sporting events to the unique place occupied by sports in American society, media seek out Putz as a go-to expert. During the World Cup, he spoke to The Washington Post about why sports fandom is, in many ways, an act of faith, and why that hope makes sports such a powerful part of the human experience. As the NBA playoffs began, Putz provided context for Religion News Service on the history of basketball and Christianity, which has been intertwined since the sport’s earliest days. And when Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin shockingly collapsed on the field during a Monday Night Football game, The New York Times reached out to Putz about the bond between football and faith.
“To be a sports fan is an act of faith. Not faith as abstract belief or mental assent, but instead faith as actively entrusting yourself to another,” Putz wrote on his Substack, Spirit of the Game. “As we root and cheer for a team, we should recognize that we are being formed in some way. Faith and hope are entry points into the fan experience. For Christians sports fans in particular, they are also destinations towards which we should travel, strengthened and rooted in love.”
Sic ’em, Dr. Putz!