Pierre de Coubertin and his "Olympic religion": the philosophy of a secular cult Introduction: from sports to the sacred The concept of the "Olympic religion," proposed by Baron Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937), is a key and paradoxical element of his philosophy of the revival of the Games. It was not a metaphor. Coubertin consciously used religious terminology and ritual forms to create a new, secular in content but sacred in form cult intended to unite humanity around the ideals of physical and spiritual perfection. His doctrine represents a synthesis of 19th-century humanist positivism, neopagan Hellenism, and a peculiar civil theology. Origin of the idea: crisis of tradition and the search for a new faith Bred in an aristocratic Catholic family, Coubertin experienced a profound worldview crisis related to France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) and the feeling of the decline of the spiritual foundations of society. He saw modernity as a vacuum of faith that, in his opinion, should have been filled. Sport, and especially its idealized ancient image, became for him an instrument for creating a new secular "church." By analyzing the Spartan agelgou and the Athenian gymnasium, he saw not just sports institutions, but institutions of spiritual and civic education. His trip to the United States in 1894, where he studied the physical education system, and to England, where the ideology of "muscular Christianity" (muscular Christianity) dominated, finally convinced him of the messianic role of sport. Dogmas and rituals of the new "faith" The "Olympic religion" of Coubertin possessed all the attributes of a traditional cult: Dogmas (principles): The highest values were not victory, but participation; not triumph, but struggle; not result, but self-improvement. The credo "Citius, Altius, Fortius" ("Faster, Higher, Stronger") was more a formula for spiritual growth than a slogan of competition. The most important ethical norm became chivalrous behavior, fair pl ... Read more