Olympic Movement And Christianity

From the angle of the birth of the modern Olympic games,the thought system of the Olympic games,the structure of Olympics organization,the activity content of the Olympics and the development of China’ s modern sport and Olympics,and with the method of material analysis,coupled with that of the logical thinking,the dissertation made detailed comparison between the Olympic Games and Christianity,and it has been found that there exist much common points,which go as follows.As is known that the Ancient Olympic Games originated from religious worship,while,the modern Olympic Games is,in a sense,a rejuvenation of the ancient Olympic Games,therefore the latter is supposed to have some relationship with the former.It has been well proved that it is the Renaissance,coupled with the Reformation,as well as the Enlightenment that was pregnant of the modern Olympic Games.It is also worth noting that all of the three campaigns are theoretically based on the Christianity,which,thus is the original source for the birth of modern Olympics.Coubertin,the founder of the modern Olympic Games,was a sincere Christian,whose thought was rife with the Christianity,such as his notion of muscular Christianity,his high respect for Arnold education philosophy and his sincere praise of Cavalier spirit,the three of which, actually,all rooted from Christianity.Many ceremonial forms of modern Olympic Games can be traced back to the stories in Bible,such as the swearing-in ceremony,flame lighting,the dove flying and even the crowning of olive branch to the winner. Particularly,the sermon made by bishop before the Games during the early time of modern Olympic games showed the close connection between Olympic games and Christianity. The Olympic Games Spirit has amazingly much in common with Christianity ethics.The friendship,the fair play and the focus on participation totally agree with the ethics of Christianity.In the meantime,the motto of Olympic Games of "the higher,the faster,the stronger " came from the catholic father Henri Didon and has inner coincidence with the motto from the angle of theology.China’ s modern sport cause and the Olympic activities benefited much from church schools and Young Men’s Christian Association,in the aspects of the introduce of modern sport items,the spread of modern sport theory, the sport system establishment,the cultivation of sport talents and the women sport development.