11.08.2005

U2 Theology notes

Some notes on the "U2 Theology" session with Dwight Friesen and (mostly) Jeff Keuss at a recent conference called "Generous Orthodoxy." Difficult to get too much out of these brief notes, but it does include an audio file (be patient, quality is uneven). A chronological and interactive 1-hour presentation, a few interesting comments about the nature of fandom, several connections from Jeff of the kind that (as with Robert Vagacs referenced below) you can only get from someone who has interacted with U2 steadily as part of his own spiritual life for years. (Hey, I'll listen to anyone who, during a highly promising reading of "With or Without You," would have it occur to him to posit a link between the Edge's "infinite guitar" effect and the apophatic tradition. And he even gets the Bongolese right! Memo to Jeff: the rest of it's great too, but publish this!)

And it's up to the minute enough to be using the Rolling Stone podcast.

Love the image used about ATYCLB and HTDAAB: "Moving from singing to the world to trying to get the world to sing along." And for anyone who knows U2 in the 90s well, how clever is this subheading: "Dropping a Fly in the Chalice: Seeing the Sacrament amidst the Spectacle"? Overall, very worth a listen.

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