Spirituality and Play: A Social Scientific Examination Focused on Christians

• Main Author: Nienhuis, Carl
• Other Authors: Heintzman, Paul A.
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa 2020
• Subjects: Play; Spirituality
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10393/41212; http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-25436

The purpose of this thesis was to explore the relationships between spirituality and play. Phase 1 involved in-depth interviews with ten Christian participants who indicated relationships between their spiritual attitudes and their play experience. The exploration of the spirituality and play intersection resulted in several primary themes, or features, of play: enjoyment, freedom and creative expression, connection, transformation and meaning. Phase 2 consisted of a large-scale quantitative study designed to investigate the extent to which the sample (N = 346) reflected the features of play. The Play Experience Scale (PES), developed based on conceptual, theological and empirical research and Phase 1 data, aimed to evaluate ten primary features associated with play: freedom, enjoyment, relationships (with self, God, people, and nature), creativity, transformation and meaning. Overall frequency and enjoyment of play correlated with all the features of play, with the exception of the ‘relation to God’ feature. In exploring differences between Christian (n = 187) and non-Christian (n = 159) participants, results showed that non-Christians exhibited significantly greater frequency and enjoyment of participating in play. It was found that Christians scored significantly higher on the overall play experience score, and two features of play: relation to God and relation to nature. Further, Christian sport participants reported significantly higher levels on the PES and the features of enjoyment, relation to others, transformation and meaning, as compared to Christian sport non-participants. Factor analysis of the PES suggested three-factors: creative expression, relation to God, and transformation. Creative expression correlated most strongly with self and nature sources of spirituality; transformation correlated with human-spirituality; and relation to God correlated with theistic and transcendent spirituality. Creative expression correlated with all five categories of playful activity, relation to God negatively correlated with spontaneous and casual play, and transformation most strongly correlated with physical contests and sports. Overall, creative expression and transformation were significantly correlated with playful activity, self-determined motivation, dispositional flow and frequent sport participation. In Phase 3, in-depth interviews were conducted with seven pastors to explore how play could be integrated into church life. Pastors emphasized the capacity for play to develop and strengthen relationships, notably through pedagogical practice, intergenerational activities, and within organized community programs. Altogether, creative expression, transformation and interpersonal connections were the most prominent features of play that emerged from this mixed-methods study. Findings suggest that even though play is evident in the lives of Christians, tensions persist regarding the role of play within work-life integration. Additionally, contrasting perspectives emerged regarding spiritual maturity and relational and spiritual encounters. Future research needs to examine the utility of the PES, explore the ambiguity of spirituality and play, and engage a broader sample of participants, especially pastors. Study findings have implications for pastors, teachers and leaders wanting to incorporate play into ecclesiological and educational life through emphasizing and facilitating the creative, transformative and relational features of play.