11th December, 2003
BRUCE WEARNE says a new book examining the connections between God and soccer will appeal to fans of the local football codes. Even Collingwood supporters...

Mark Roques, Fields of God - Football and the Kingdom of God. Authentic Lifestyle (Paternoster UK), 2003 (ISBN 1-85078-506-6)

Mark Roques has produced a deeply humorous and insightful book. It is so Biblically rich that having read it the reader will have a new appreciation for soccer in the context of the Kingship of Jesus Christ. Roques views soccer through the Biblical lens of creation, the fall and Christ's redemption.

It may be an English book but the local Australian fan of any code of football will benefit from reading it.

Roques knows how to tells stories. He also knows his Bible and the history of philosophy. He gives a wonderful pitch-side exposé of the Greek boffin (Plato) whose thinking has had an enormous impact upon Christians.

Plato's ideas have continued to undermine authentically Biblically-directed thinking about our life in this world, about our bodily condition as creatures, and Roques believes that only the Bible can help us to understand the truth about soccer - a wonderful game that is also God's creation.

Read this. It would make a wonderful gift, especially to all those fanatical Collingwood supporters with whom you would like to share the good news.