Those searching for a unique religious experience, or a universal game, should ask Alon Raab about soccer.

A lecturer in religious studies at UC Davis, Raab comes from Israel where he played, watched and dreamed about soccer from an early age. He continued to play soccer throughout high school, college and into adulthood.

“On the field, I am a rightwinger, but not politically,” he said.

Intersections of sport, culture

Among the classes Raab teaches are first- and second-year Hebrew, a film class on the Israeli-Palestinian encounter and another on the culture of soccer.

“Through the lens of the game we learn about its intersections with class, gender, nationalism and many more aspects. And, of course, we also play,” he said.

Raab’s love for soccer is intertwined with his understanding of religion.

“For many, including myself, soccer is our religion — replete with sacred places and shrines, places of worship, saints, villains, heroes, high priests and rituals,” he said.

“Like religion, the game has the ability to unite people and foster a sense of community, but also to create fundamentalists who establish borders and fences.”

Special guests for the soccer class include a former member of the Irish national team and a founder of a soccer school in Togo in West Africa.

Raab recently co-edited a book, The Global Game: Writers on Soccer, which details the universal appeal of soccer. The book portrays the sport as a “global language” that showcases work from all corners of the earth.

He said the book grew out of a realization that soccer is a highly chronicled sport. His co-editors include freelance soccer writer John Turnbull and Thom Satterlee, an associate professor of English at Taylor University.

The book includes a passage from the 11th century Japanese epic The Tale of Genji, an essay about the Inuit of Greenland and their belief that souls of the dead play soccer with a walrus skull. Elvis Costello, Giovanna Pollarolo, Ted Hughes and Subcomandante Marcos are among the authors whose works are included.

Of course, Raab’s primary scholarly interest is religion, not sports. And he sometimes has unorthodox subjects as class topics. Last fall, he taught a class on “God and Satan through Film.”

“I came up with the idea for the class,” he said. “Sometimes it is a challenge for students to separate their beliefs from what they consider to be facts. This class showed that God and Satan are the most central figures in many cultures and that portrayals of them are always changing.”

The class studied these interpretations in movies, rock music videos, musicals and with the help of guest speakers, he noted.

Raab will give a reading from his book, The Global Game: Writers on Soccer, at noon May 19 in the Art Lounge on the second floor in the Memorial Union. The author said the reading will be followed by a soccer game on the A Street Intramural Field (Third and A streets).

Caitlin Cobb is a Dateline writing intern.