Studies the intersectionality of religion and disability as it exists within contemporary sports. To do so, Sean O'Neil calls to the forefront various contemporary stories about trauma and disability, and examines how we tell and interpret these stories within the frameworks of athletic activity, competition, failure, and success.
"Sean O'Neil explores several narratives at the intersection of religion and disability across the spectrum of contemporary sports. He ties religious belief and practice to the oftentimes fragile bodies of athletes, including those with disabilities. Athletic triumph over fragility is couched in religious terms, though not always with strictly Christian connotations, and O'Neil interleaves his own limitations through an autoethnographic presentation of his battle with skin cancer and his lifelong struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder"--