Amazon preorders are up, sort of

You can now preorder Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalog from Amazon.com, but they claim not to know the price. Well, it's $14.95 list....

The post 9/11 Elevation Tour shows

Two years ago today I was anticipating heading over to Providence to see U2 the first of two nights at the Dunkin Donuts Center. In the wake of Dave's comment on my post about All Saints, I was thinking about a subsequent discussion on a clergy-only listserv -- someone raised a strong objection when a few of us who had seen U2 on the 3rd leg of the Elevation Tour used the word "liturgy" about that experience. The concern was (like the person) thoughtful, and boiled down to the fear that we were legitimizing a consumerist mentality in which professionals serve up prefabricated experiences to a passive audience.

I went back through that list's archives today and reread the discussion, and since I now have the opportunity to be really self-serving and narcissistic by posting things I write here [;-)], here's something I said which I still stand by.

I would be stunned if those in attendance who are not "churched" didn't experience themselves as much more empowered and less an audience at a U2 concert than they would in a standard Sunday Eucharist. And a large part of my passion about what they did with the 3rd leg of the Elevation tour is precisely that --- not just that people had religious emotions and mystical experiences and grieved together and so on (altho that's great) but that they got to be on board, empowered, and part of creating a spiritual event.

If you want to fault it, fault away -- I can certainly think of criticisms, and there are things about it I would hate to see the church emulate -- but faulting U2 on being "served to people" or non-participatory is, IMHO, a significant misreading of what's going on.

When U2 are involved, everyone seems to put the word "radical" before the word "faith"

Looks like the Notre Dame campus ministry is going to have an interesting few weeks of U2 theology. I had a nice note from Tim; book flyers are on the way!

In the Name of Love: Artists United for Africa

The full tracklisting for the U2 Sparrow records AIDS in Africa charity CD tribute is available now. Here's a reprinted story about this album of Christian CCM artists covering U2 songs from The Body's HIV/AIDS Newsroom. This article from CMCentral is a lot more complete and throws in the tidbit that Steve Averill of Four 5 One designed the thing, and that the packaging is going to include excerpts from The aWAKE Project: Uniting Against the African AIDS Crisis and Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2. The first single will be Beautiful Day (hmm; why does that sentence sound oddly familiar?)

Bono meets Brian McLaren (not really)

A note to say "Thanks for the link" to Rudy, who has declared today U2 Day at Urban Onramps ("Maybe I'll oppress my hip-hop loving staff at Harambee with some Irish beats.")

On the side of a hill, we were filled

[Update 2 months later: we all now know that the rumor reported in the following is definitely not true.]

I don't know if I believe this or not. In fact, I probably don't; I haven't mentioned any number of similar rumors that have appeared in print over the past few months. This one, however, I can't resist: a Spanish-language U2 site is reporting that U2 are booked to play the "Xacobeo" (the Santiago de Compostela holy year festivities). On the Monte del Gozo itself, no less (nearest stop on the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela, called "Mt. Joy" because you can see the spires of the cathedral from there.) The math is fairly easy: Although I believe the entire year counts as the Xacobeo, the trigger event for the party is a sort of Dogma-esque plenary pardon for everyone who walks through the church doors when the feast of St. James (in Spanish, Santiago) falls on a Sunday. That would be July 25, 2004.

Here's another report on it. If it were true, I think this would be a concert to be at. It's probably not true, of course. This kind of stuff usually isn't.

Don't mention the war

I'm preaching for the Friends at the Advent at their Halloween Mass on Friday night. We're using the All Saints readings, for obvious reasons, and I have only one request from the celebrant: "Mention U2." I find that quite funny, since sermon preparation for me would normally be more likely to involve the opposite effort: don't mention U2. And now that I've started working on the sermon, I find it even funnier... because I cannot think of anything U2-related to say about All Saints.

Um, the book is about U2.

Well, Amazon has corrected, at least somewhat, its Get Up Off Your Knees listing.... They have most of the info right now, although they still have not put U2 in the subject index for the book (!) and they still don't have the preorder link up. But this is progress!

I love seeing the U2 book cover on someone else's blog

Thanks to two Quirings, Greg and Heidi, who remind us, respectively, that "life should be fragrant, rooftop to the basement," and "the goal is soul," as well as to Ordinary Community for the links.

Philosophy at 33 1/3 RPM

Probably like everybody else, I've been playing with the brand new "search inside the book" thing at Amazon. And if it's going to turn up interesting discoveries like this mid-90s Robyn Brothers essay Time to Heal, "Desire" Time: The Cyberprophecy of U2's Zoo World Order, I'm all for it. You can only read 2 pages at a shot. However, if you were to "search inside this book" on something generic, like say, "U2," you'd be able to get a pretty good sense of the essay from the Amazon images.

Personal favorite moment: finally seeing someone else (other than me) evoke Bride/Bridegroom mysticism in conjunction with U2. (So frequent in U2 spirituality, so rarely mentioned. Although I would argue at length with anyone who cares to that the immediate influence here is unlikely to be actual medieval mystics.)
Personal favorite phrase: "The sublimation of transcendence is the theme that the band's lyricist repeatedly admits interests him the most."

The essay is from deep inside the mid-90s U2 vision, so it doesn't account at all for anything they've produced since, but I would never have found it without the new search feature. Cool.

A highway with no one on it?

I've had several emails from people saying they can't get to the preorder site this morning. [edit at about 1:45 PM -- it's working for me again now.] The URL is right and the site was available (and viewed by many people) as of Tuesday, so there's probably just a temporary glitch. In the meantime, you can still visit Cowley direct.

"...asserting a theology unique to television."

Folks thinking about the interface between popular culture and faith may enjoy this Beliefnet article on the theology of some current TV shows ("Joan of Arcadia," "Tru Calling," "Wonderfalls," and "Carnivale.")

Update

Thank you as well to Interference and U2 Page for spreading the word about preorders.

Uh, hi everybody

We're the top story on @U2's "bits and bytes" right now, and I've just sent out a whole lot more notifications that the book can be pre-ordered. (Which means not that it is published, but that it isn't yet; last I heard it was at the typesetter.) If you're visiting for the first time, browse around... this blog is run by Beth, and Raewynne and I both welcome all inquiries - as of course does our publisher Cowley.

Preorder info

...So how do you like the cover, over there on the left? Isn't it great?

The dedicated U2 sermon book order site is open for business, and the book is also showing up now at online booksellers like BN.com and Amazon.com.

Remember that sales benefit AIDS work in Africa through the charity TASO, to whom all contributors are donating their royalties.

Friends at the Advent

Well, that was lots of fun. Great people, fun ambiance, fine location, and I even found a parking place a block away. It was also an unexpected treat for me seeing those videos on the big screen. I loved the bartender who went around singing along with everything while we were setting up and proudly told me he had been at the ZooTV St. Patrick's Day U2 concert at the Garden.

After the lecture we had a long Q&A with several very interesting questions, which I should really write down while I still remember them so I can give better answers next time. The one I was the worst prepared for, as those who were there saw, was "what other video should we watch and will you show it to us?" (I realized in the car going home I should have chosen something from ZooTV to highlight a theme about which we hadn't already talked, probably "Until the End of The World" or "The Fly," rather than another Pop one. Of course I know "Stay," which we also ended up watching later, is from Zooropa, but it's still the same thematic stuff.)

Thanks to Alister for his media help, to Jennifer from Cowley for showing up with book flyers, and to Patrick for the invitation. Looking forward to being with the Friends again at the Halloween Mass.

For anyone in the Boston area

Quick reminder that I will be giving a presentation on The Goal is Soul: Pursuing God with U2 on this coming Monday. The talk is part of Friends At The Advent's Theology on Tap series for people in their 20s and 30s. Social time starts at 7 PM.

Raewynne and I have recently put together some other presentation ideas, too...

Care for some poststructuralism with your latte?

I learned from Raewynne's essay in Get Up Off Your Knees about applying the concept of intertextuality in preaching -- something I already felt instinctively, but had not ever learned the name for. Well, from Urban Onramps, here's Rudy Carrasco spontaneously illustrating how an intertextually-minded urban minister and U2 fan drives to the coffee shop.

In the Name of Love: Artists United for Africa

Hm. The good folks over at The Promontory Arts & Faith Conversation Forum don't exactly seem to be jumping up and down with excitement over Sparrow Records' forthcoming CCM U2 tribute album.

People who read blogs4God

Thanks to Journey Inside My Mind for the link.

Apocalypse Without the Beasts

Oh, well, as long as we're talking about Radiohead, why not link this new review of David Dark's Everyday Apocalypse? (Thanks to Kathy.)

By the way, David's website includes an old article from 1996 entitled The Importance of Being Earnest: An Appreciation of U2's Dismantled Image.

Thom Yorke and the sound of Nineveh repenting

A nice article in next-wave on Radiohead as sacred music. The author is from Warehouse 242.

blogs4God

For the good of the order: We're newly listed on blogs4God.

$2 billion is not $3 billion

Dr. Alex Coutinho, the Executive Director of TASO, the charity that Get Up Off Your Knees will benefit, recently received the UN Association's Global Humanitarian Award. Bono was in NY at the UNA-USA Global Leadership Awards Dinner to present it.

If you are concerned about AIDS in Africa and you live in the USA, the week of Oct 13 would be a good time to call your Senators (and Majority Leader Bill Frist) about the Durbin amendment to the Iraq Supplemental. (DATA has even set up a toll-free number, 1-877-HOPE-USA, for you.)

The Presbyterians will tell you exactly how to do this, as will Church World Service.

How much is a lot, exactly?

"Seven thousand Africans are dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease -- it's madness. ... Eighty-seven billion for two countries is a lot, but we're looking for $3 billion this year for a whole continent."
--Bono at the UN on Wednesday

Falsani Fridays: God, Bono, the Cardinal, and the Cubs

Whether or not you read her column for any other reason (I do) I'm sure most of the readers of U2 Sermons have enjoyed Cathleen Falsani's insightful and fearless pieces on Bono and DATA in the Chicago Sun-Times religion section and in Christianity Today. This interview with Falsani is great, and if you are at all interested in intelligent talk on writing about religion, you should read it.

And, even if you just want U2 content, yes, there is plenty. Three brief quotes:
I used to tell people, "I want to take Bono to church. I want to go to church with Bono," never thinking that would actually happen. And then I did it like six times in a week.
+
I�m a huge, huge fan. I�d be lying if I said otherwise. I remember exactly where I was standing when this guy I knew when I was 11 or 12 turned to me and said, "Hey, my brother played this great album for me, it�s this new band from Ireland..."
+
I don�t have an ongoing relationship with him. ... I don�t have his cell phone number. ...Let me be very clear: Bono and I are not friends. So anybody who thinks we are can stop e-mailing me.
+

Some great reflections on working with clergy, writing theology that doesn't read like theology, and outing herself as a Christian in the DATA at Wheaton article. And I had no idea she was at Garrett for seminary. I was literally right across the street at SWTS at about the same time.

Kiss of Heaven

I guess it's Australia week at U2 Sermons. If you would like to hear 30 seconds of Christian worship leader Darlene Zschech's cover of U2�s "Walk On," which closes her new solo album, Kiss of Heaven, you can do it at Word Distribution. (If this is representative, I have to say I don't find it an especially appealing take on the song.)

Kiss of Heaven -- Walk On

Google for this link: Nobel Prize+MacPhisto+Watchman Nee+fish

I've mentioned before the book on How Faith Has Influenced 12 Music Icons, which profiles celebrities (unlike our book) and tries to figure out their beliefs (also unlike our book). Steve Beard of Thunderstuck wrote the sections on Johnny Cash and Bono, and he was on Australian radio yesterday to talk about them, along with Scott Marshall who co-wrote Restless Pilgrim: The Spiritual Journey of Bob Dylan -- another profile, obviously.

"The most limber and enigmatic spiritual provocateur that rock and roll has ever had," says Steve of Bono. The program is called The Spirit of Things, and you can listen to yesterday's edition via RealAudio. If you're only in it for the U2, the Bono segment starts at about 20:00.

Do you think Father Benson would like our U2 book?

Got a kind letter today from the head of Cowley Publications (and SSJE), with all sorts of lovely comments, among them "we are very glad for this exciting collaboration." Still, what will really make the gladness meter go up will be when the book actually comes out....

Rick Warren is rolling over in his, I don't know... SUV?

Yes, yes, Wade has just what we need, a kind of postmodern Zooropa update of the much-marketed "40 Days of Purpose" program! Sign me up! All is vanity!

Another "Pop Culture in the Pulpit" reprint

An Akron, Ohio paper just picked up the profile of Raewynne that ran at the end of August. Popular music, shows help ministers connect faith to everyday life; book to use U2 as a link, they say.

U2 sermons: Minor format change

I read that you should have titles in your blog to make things easier for search engines.

Announcement: I will now have titles in the U2 sermons blog to make things easier for search engines.

Well, the God I believe in isn't... [your answer here]

Had email from Bob at The Corner this morning suggesting I link to this quote from Bono's forward to They've Hijacked God. Thanks Bob (and Darren)! I remember this going around in "U2 and Christianity" circles about 18 months ago; but you know what is interesting, I checked to see if the book had ever been published, and the only references on the web I can find to it are to that one article about Bono having written a forward. So maybe it didn't happen.

I also said to Bob in email that it would be interesting, for someone who was motivated, to kind of trace Bono's attitude to the church. There's (and I've now had time to locate it) this NME U2 profile from 1982 where the reporter follows the three Christian members of U2 to a church they've been invited to by fans and clearly can't believe Bono likes it... and then, you know, there's Mirrorball Man and "a preacher on the old time Gospel hour stealing money from the sick and the old" and everything... and then (see that Bono's American Prayer article) there's the more recent chumming around with Bill Hybels and Michael W. Smith....

Maybe it's time for another Get Up Off Your Knees book excerpt. This is from Raewynne's essay " 'Woo me, sister; move me, brother!' What does pop culture have to do with preaching? "

Culture critiques and shapes faith; faith critiques and shapes culture. The relationship is dialectical � as we pay attention to a specific instance of the influence of culture on faith, we become aware of where that influence has itself been shaped by faith, and so on, in a never-ending dance....

Christianity likewise has both shaped and been shaped by the cultures that surround it. In the New Testament period, we see instances of its accommodation to the Greco-Roman world � for example, in discussions of circumcision, women covering their heads, and the eating of unclean meats � and, particularly from the time of Constantine on, its centrality in shaping Western civilization.

But for the most part, this happens not so much on a formal level, in the councils of the church or through direct Scriptural decree, but on an informal level, in the lives and communities of the faithful, from which it trickles up to the structures. People grab hold of their culture in one hand and their religion in the other, and then try to work out how it is that they can not only co-exist, but be in harmony. They ask questions and forge answers, they look for places of genuine coherence, for authentic emotion, for congruity with experience. Both culture and religion tap into the very essence of who we are; they are the building blocks of our identity. It is no wonder, then, that they are integrally and substantially related.

And that is particularly true of the relationship between pop culture, as expressed in music, and Christian faith. Robert Schreiter suggests in his book, Constructing Local Theologies, that �the poet, the prophet, the teacher . . . may be among those who give leadership to the actual shaping into words of the response of faith.� They give voice to the voices that are not being heard.

It is here that U2 belongs: singing the laments of Zion, echoing the prophetic shouts for justice, calling the faithful and the faith-less to action. And with U2 join the many preachers who have heard the band�s work and struggled to give voice to the theologies which emerge from its interaction with the sacred. They give voice not only to their own longings and hopes, but to those of our culture alongside those of our tradition � so that we learn to speak a truly colloquial language of faith.

A nice article about Johnny Cash by The Edge just came out, and in it he tells about the recording of The Wanderer, the sort of weird Ecclesiastes-spawn on Pop (I referenced it here when Cash died.) It just has all the hallmarks of one of those Holy Spirit events.

I think we all thought, 'Aw, Bono's just trying to create some sort of distraction from the fact that he really has no idea what he wants to do on the song, this is just one crazy idea too far.' But whenever something like that happens I've learned to bite my tongue somewhat, because those crazy ideas often turn out to be the ones that come to pass, and indeed this was one of those. We got on the phone pretty much immediately to try and get through to Johnny, and he said he'd love to come down just to say hello, and, y'know, if it was something he could sing on, great, he'd be up for it.
...[Johnny] did two vocals, that was it, we didn't even get into, 'Could you try it this way?' it was literally a case of, 'I can't quite believe what's going on!' There was a little element of giddiness in the room. After he left and we'd said our goodbyes, everyone just looked at each other and went, 'What just happened?!!'

Uh, yeah... I know that feeling exactly.