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ENDURANCE RUNNING AS INITIATION INTO THE MYSTERIES and pathways associated with cognitive control and memory”. Running can produce short-term euphoria, an affective state associated with feelings of profound contentment, elation, and well-being, which is colloquially known as “runner’s high” or a “rower’s high.” According to George Sheehan, for manyrunners, be they theologians, writers, or others, running is “a retreat, a place to commune with God and oneself, a place for psychological and spiritual renewal.”° Indeed, many runners consider roads and trails places of worship, where they reflect, dream, give thanks, and even dwell in the grace of the divine. An increasing number of lifestyle books support this view, such as Roger D. Joslin’s Running the Spiritual Path.’ The specific link between spirituality, mysticism and athletic performance is definitely worth further exploration, as is the role religion has played in physical exercise and, conversely, the role physical exercise has played in religious traditions, including a comparison of the somewhat similar states people achieve during religious and sporting activities and rituals. Of the academic works dealing with these aspects, the 2007 published volume Sports and Spirituality is worth mentioning.* In a chapter entitled “Nature and Transcendence: the Mystical and Sublime in Extreme Sports”, Nick J. Watson addresses the relationship between religion and sports with a robust theological grounding, arriving at the conclusion that extreme athletic experience cannot provide access to the realms of the Holly, at least not in the sense in which Rudolf Otto, St Paul, Jonathan Edwards, or St John of the Cross variously refer to it.° Another critical contribution worth mentioning here is a volume edited by Robert J. Higgs and Michael Brasell.’° Entitled An Unholy Alliance: The Sacred and Modern Sports, the book offers a dissenting view to the claim made by a growing number of scholars, that sports can be analysed in terms of religious experience. When dealing with the prehistoric mythological parallels between sports and religion, it is definitely important to distinguish between religion and mysticism in the literal sense and the metaphorical sense. 5 Fernando Gomez-Pinilla — Charles Hillman, The influence of exercise on cognitive abilities, Comprehensive Physiology 3 (1), 2013, 403-428. § George Sheenan, Running to Win: How to Achieve the Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Victories: How to Achieve the Physical, Mental and Spiritual Victories of Running. New York, Rodale Press, 1994, 212. 7 Roger D. Joslin, Running the Spiritual Path: A Runner’s Guide to Breathing, Meditating, and Exploring the Prayerful Dimension of the Sport: Practices that can Enrich your Communion with God and Open your Heart while you are Exercising, London, St. Martin’s Griffin, 2004. § Jim Parry — Simon Robinson — Nick J. Watson - Mark Nesti, Sports and Spirituality. An Introduction, London-New York, Routledge, 2007. ° Nick J. Watson, Nature and Transcendence: the Mystical and Sublime in Extreme Sports, in Jim Parry, Simon Robinson, Nick J. Watson, Mark Nesti (ed.), Sports and Spirituality. An Introduction, London-New York, Routledge, 2007, 12. 10 Robert J. Higgs — Michael Brasell, An Unholy Alliance: The Sacred and Modern Sports, Macon, Mercer University Press, 2004. + 321 + Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 321 6 2020.06.15. 11:04:26
