Paul Putz, PhD

Education

• PhD, Baylor University
• MA, University of Nebraska Omaha
• BS, Grace University (Omaha)

Research Interests

• Sports Studies
• Sports Ministry/Chaplaincy
• Moral Formation
• American Christianity
• Religious History

Courses Taught

• Theology and Philosophy of Sports Ministry
• Integration of Faith and Sports
• Soul Care in Sports
• Studies in Sports Culture
• Sports and Christianity in Historical Context

Publication Highlights

• Jesus and James Naismith: A History of Basketball and Christianity from Origins to the NBA (Eerdmans, forthcoming)
• The Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big-Time Sports (Oxford University Press, 2024)
• “‘O God We Must Win’: The Midwest and the Integration of Religion and Sport,” in Oxford History of the Midwest, edited by Jon Lauck (Oxford University Press, 2025), 629-646.
• “Sport,” in The Oxford Handbook of Christian Fundamentalism, edited by Andrew Atherstone and David Ceri Jones (New York: Oxford University Press, 2024), 418-434.
• “‘There is Talk of Black Power’: Christian Athletes and the Revolt of the Black Athlete,” in Religion and Sport in North America: Critical Essays for the Twenty-First Century, edited by Jeffrey Scholes and Randall Balmer (New York: Routledge, 2022), 13-34.
• “Tracing the Historical Contours of Black Muscular Christianity and American Sport,” The International Journal of the History of Sport 39.4 (2022): 404-424.

About Dr. Putz

Paul Emory Putz is assistant professor of Christianity and Sports, holder of the Harold and Dottie Riley Chair in Sports Ministry and Chaplaincy, and director of the Faith & Sports Institute.

Paul received his bachelor’s degree in secondary education from Grace University (Omaha) where he played basketball. After teaching high school social studies, he went on to get a PhD in history from Baylor, graduating in 2018. He spent a year as a lecturer in history at Messiah University before arriving at Truett Seminary in 2019.

During his time at Truett, Paul has helped to develop and lead several new initiatives. He  launched the Faith & Sports Institute’s Online Certificate Program, which has enrolled more than 225 students worldwide; led the creation of the MA in Theology and Sports Studies, Truett’s first fully online degree; strengthened collaboration with Baylor Athletics, serving as PI for a collaborative grant focused on faith-based character formation and college sports; and served as conference director for the fourth Global Congress on Sports and Christianity, held at Truett in 2025. In 2026, Paul was appointed to a faculty position to go along with his continued leadership of FSI.

In addition to his work as an educator and administrator, Paul is an award-winning scholar and a leading expert at the intersection of sports and Christianity. His research and writing has been featured in a variety of media outlets, including Christianity Today, National Public Radio, the Washington Post, and more. His first book, The Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big-Time Sports (Oxford University Press, 2024), was awarded the Brewer Prize from the American Society of Church History, which honors a work of outstanding scholarship in the history of Christianity by a first-time author. It also won the Guittard Prize, which celebrates the highest quality scholarship in the field of history published by faculty and graduates of the Baylor History Department. 

His second book, Jesus and James Naismith: A History of Basketball and Christianity from Origins to the NBA, is set to be published by Eerdmans in 2027.

Paul and his wife Bethany have three children. They both grew up as pastor’s kids in small-town Nebraska before making Texas their home.