Divine Creation

It's Sunday, the most religious of days.

In Montreal they've always claimed hockey is not a sport, but a religion. Starting in January, the claim will actually be true.

The University of Montreal's faculty of theology will be offering a graduate course titled "The Religion of the Montreal Canadiens."

The concept was created by Olivier Bauer, who is actually a Swiss professor who moved to Montreal in 2006. With his outsider's viewpoint he was astonished by the actual parallels between the city's hockey team and religion.

With the Montreal Canadiens celebrating their centennial, Bauer was able to convince the University to fund and create the course, which he says will "the question that nobody dares ask: whether the Montreal Canadiens are a religion?" he told Graeme Hamilton of the National Post.

"Nobody has examined what this really means, all the religious aspects around the Montreal Canadiens. Is it just a metaphor? Is there something deeper? How important is it, and what is the relationship to Quebec's Catholic tradition?"

I wonder which of this year's new hockey books would be the most appropriate text book for such a class? Perhaps Honoured Canadiens, or Montreal Canadiens: 100 Years Of Glory, although I'm pretty sure it won't be the book about St. Patrick.