Christianity Today’s cover story for February is a lengthy piece adapted from Shirl James Hoffman’s book Good Game: Christianity and the Culture of Sports. Its a heady article from what sounds like a scholarly read on the intersection of faith and sports so frequently discussed here.

What struck me was Hoffman’s use of the term Sportianity (coined 30 years ago by SI’s Frank Deford) and how he defines it:

“In other words, Sportianity is Christian theology vetted and co-opted by the dictates of the sports industry. Not surprisingly, it cannot speak truth to power. Its doctrines are promulgated far beyond the locker rooms of the NFL, the NBA, or Major League Baseball. Rationalized and systematized, it is vigorously taught to college, high school, and even younger athletes. Its themes crop up in sermons preached from evangelical pulpits and in articles from the religious press. There are, in fact, few alternative ways of thinking about sports and faith in the evangelical community.

In spite of its theological conservatism, Sportianity advocates a quite worldly view of sports. The concrete trumps the symbolic; doing, achieving, and struggling are favored over mystery, joy, feeling, transport, and spiritual insight. When effort, sacrifice, and competitive success become the preferred ways to glorify God, joyous play—which might be what theologian Robert K. Johnston has called “a prolegomenon [preface] to further encounters with God”—can seem an unworthy offering. In the dialectical, serious-but-not-serious world of play, Sportians tip the scales decidedly toward the serious, made weightier by the evangelistic mission they are anxious to load onto sports.”

Any thoughts?

Oakland A’s prospect Grant Desme made public this afternoon a decision he had already made when he homered and struck out twice in his final game in the Arizona Fall League last fall. He’s leaving baseball to study for the priesthood at a Catholic seminary in California.

Let the headline puns about higher callings, higher leagues, chastity belts, collars and cloth begin. Or even better, miss-the-point headlines like one from Huffington Post talking about Desme “pursuing his faith” (as if one can’t pursue faith while not in seminary).

Desme had this to say during a conference call with reporters today, according to a blog post on SFGate.com:

“I’m doing well in baseball. But I had to get down to the bottom of things, to what was good in my life, what I wanted to do with my life. Baseball is a good thing, but that felt selfish of me when I felt that God was calling me more. It took awhile to trust that and open up to it and aim full steam toward him.”

Grant might want to talk to former pro soccer player Chase Hilgenbrinck about the transition from sports to seminary. Hilgenbrinck retired in November 2008 to enroll in a Catholic seminary on the East Coast.

A while back PFB Founder Bryan Allain wrote about his resemblance to Andy Roddick and how he looks enough like the tennis star to be confused for him in airports.

I’m not a big tennis guy, but I am glued to ESPN360 whenever the Kansas Jayhawks play and for some reason whenever I see Jayhawk center Cole Aldrich play I think of Bryan (someone I’ve seen in person exactly twice, by the way).

Bryan, of course, isn’t 6-foot-11 and on his way to riding the bench in the NBA (Cole hasn’t exactly been playing like an NBA starter to be this season on the offensive end). But Bryan did mysteriously lose a tooth around the same time Aldrich did as this photo I definitely did not Photoshop shows:

Note: If you aren’t already a regular reader, do yourself a favor and visit/bookmark Bryan Allain’s blog at www.bryanallain.com.