Faith & Sports Institute Director Paul E. Putz Wins Brewer Prize for “The Spirit of the Game”

Waco, Texas (October 1, 2025) – Paul Emory Putz, PhD, director of the Faith & Sports Institute and program director for the Master of Arts in Theology and Sports Studies at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary, has been awarded the Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize from the American Society of Church History (ASCH) for his book, The Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big-Time Sports. 

Founded in 1888, ASCH is a scholarly association dedicated to the historical study of Christianity in all periods, locations, and contexts. It publishes Church History, widely considered the leading academic journal in the United States for the study of Christianity, religion, and religious culture around the globe. 

One of three prestigious book prizes awarded each year by ASCH, the Brewer Prize honors a work of outstanding scholarship in the history of Christianity by a first-time author and is determined through a rigorous nomination and peer review process. 

“This award is only possible because of the many people who have invested in and supported me, starting with my mentors from the Baylor history department who were there when this project began as a dissertation,” Putz said. “I often tell people that my book is not just about sports; it is really about American Christianity through the lens of sports. To have that vision recognized and affirmed by my fellow scholars is an incredible honor.” 

In The Spirit of the Game, published by Oxford University Press, Putz traces the rise of the Christian athlete movement in the United States from the 1920s onward, showing how it created a thriving subculture that shapes both sports and religious life today. 

“The Spirit of the Game is an extraordinary achievement,” said Heath W. Carter, Associate Professor of American Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary. “Putz not only recovers the momentous and long-neglected story of the Christian athlete movement. Along the way he opens an illuminating window onto much larger stories, including how U.S. Protestants – evangelical and mainline, white and Black – navigated the most vexing social and political questions of the 20th and 21st centuries. This riveting book, written with wisdom and grace by one of the nation’s most promising young scholars of American religious history, is richly deserving of the Brewer Prize.” 

As director of the Faith & Sports Institute at Truett, Putz leads initiatives exploring the intersection of theology, athletics and culture. He holds a Ph.D. in history from Baylor University, his M.A. from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and a B.S. from Grace University. 

Please join the faculty and staff of Truett Seminary in congratulating Dr. Putz on this honor. Learn more about Dr. Putz here.