Transcending the Pitch: Robin van Persie's “Inexpressible” Goal

Abstract

Does it still make sense to talk about transcendence when so much of our lives is routinized, restricted, and under surveillance? Increasingly, secularists and theists are shifting their focus to modern sports arenas. When the Dutch striker Robin van Persie scored his “out of this world” goal against Spain at the 2014 World Cup, soccer fans and pundits alike had a difficult time making sense of it all. But when we look at the construction of the stadium, the lines on the pitch, and even the specific tiki-taka tactics employed by both coaches, we see how secular regulations help lay the foundation for the freeing transcendence of the modern sports fan.