Moral and Educational Influence of Convergence of Christianity and Sports on Personality Formation

Target setting. The problem of the research is the lack of scientific works on the relationship between the socio-cultural phenomena of sports and Christianity. The topic of finding an educational ideal in a multicultural environment and in the conditions of the growth of individual opportunities for person self-identification needs to turn to the history and current features of sports and Christianity, which turn out to be important factors in the production of moral and educational potential for personality formation. Actual scientific researches and issues analysis. In the conceptual plan, the works of leading Ukrainian philosophers are important for solving the research tasks: V. Andrushchenko, V. Bondarenko, V. Yelenskyi, M. Ibragimov, A. Kyslyi, V. Kremen, O. Sagan, P. Saukha, L. Filipovych, Y. Chornomorets; teachers: M. Bulatova, S. Bubka, O. Vatseby, M. Vizytei, Zh. Kozina, I. Oleksyn, V. Platonova, E. Prystupy; foreign authors: Andrew Parker, David Asa Schwartz, Duke Taber, Earle F. Zeigler, Joseph Price, Kathleen M Armour, Kevin Lixey, Michael Novak, Nick J. Watson, Robert Higgs, Shirl Hoffman, Stuart Weir and others. The research objective. The purpose of the study is to analyze the factors of convergence the socio-cultural phenomena of sports and Christianity in the history of the development both thehuman culture and the modern understanding the possibility of the moral and educational influence of their relationship on the formation of personality. The statement of basic materials. It is considered the formation of organized sports activities, which arose on the basis of Olympic ideals in ancient Greece. Sports competitions had a deeply religious and cult character and contributed to the education of the individual. With the advent of Christianity, the relationship between sports and the Christian church acquired anthropological dimensions. Sports and Christianity appear as a natural result of the centuries-old history of mankind, as a multifunctional cultural phenomenon, where the physical and spiritual qualities of a person are most clearly manifested and the valuable assets of civilization are expressed, which in unity represent a powerful moral and educational resource in the formation of personality.