Sacralizing the profane and profaning the sacred

I noted some time ago on this blog the publication of Deane Galbraith's essay "Meeting God in the Sound" in The Counter -Narratives of Radical Theology and Popular Music. I happened today to discover that portions of that interesting essay, which includes extended readings of "Unknown Caller" and "White as Snow" as well as some useful thought about hymn allusions, are readable on Google books. You might want to give the pages that are available a look.

New article on U2 via Baudrillard

Deane Galbraith, author of the fascinating "Fallen Angels" paper in Exploring U2, writes to say that he has a publication on U2 included in a new book out on theology and rock music, The Counter-Narratives of Radical Theology and Popular Music: Songs of Fear and Trembling (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.) It's edited by Mike Grimshaw, and the U2 chapter is "Meeting God in the Sound: The Seductive Dimension of U2's Future Hymns." In the article, Deane employs Jean Baudrillard's distinction between the production of meaning and the seductive capacity of texts, in order to "examine the role played by U2’s emphasis on the formal, mystical, and experiential aspects of their music, and how that emphasis coincides with a religious trend which since at least the 1960s can be located throughout the arts, popular music, and—in a perhaps surprising association—charismatic evangelical Christianity." The chapter focuses on No Line On The Horizon and the U2 360 tour, and includes detailed discussions of "White as Snow" and "Unknown Caller." I haven't had a chance to look it over, but I've read enough of Deane's work that I expect it to be good!

Courting an untamed God

Here is a look at the imagery of "Wild Honey," brought into dialogue with the Puritans, Isaiah, John Eldredge, Augustine, and others who have used courtship language about God.

Coolness and detachment, or heart on the sleeve?

A piece from the Image Journal blog riffing on "being uncool" as something characteristic of U2 and, perhaps, an indicator of the importance of narrative spiritual nonfiction. HT to our friends at Interference who published an edited version of the piece.

I just heard about a new article called "Soundtracks of Acrobatic Selves: Fan-Site Religion in the Reception and Use of the Music of U2," which appears in the October 2011 issue of The Journal of Contemporary Religion. Free viewing of the actual text isn't possible for 12 more months (even from within an academic gateway with a subscription, it seems), but the abstract says that the article analyses 40 pieces posted on a fansite in response to U2 songs, looking at how such online reflection "may contribute to the development of religious/spiritual exploration in contemporary Western societies." The authors are Clive Marsh and Vaughan S. Roberts.

The Screwtape Songs: Bono, C.S. Lewis, and Zoo-Era U2 : U2 Interference – U2 Fans, Pop Culture Webzine, & More

Perhaps it's Tim Neufeld week here at U2 Sermons! Check out this article called The Screwtape Songs: Bono, C.S. Lewis, and Zoo-Era U2 over on the fansite Interference. It gives an interesting overview of Bono's use of C.S. Lewis' work at various points in U2's career. Thanks also to Tim for the hat-tip on my series of posts on "The Fly" in the Vertigo era, the Zoo and Elevation eras, and the transition between the two. (If you only have time for one of those, read the one on the Vertigo era.)

Exploring U2: Is this rock 'n' roll?

Take a look at the cover, table of contents and general information for Exploring U2: Is This Rock 'n' Roll?, the book that grew out of the 2009 U2 academic conference. I can vouch for the excellence of several of the papers that made it in, and I am very excited about seeing a hard copy this fall!

[edit: We've been asked to submit an alphabtical list of songs cited in our chapters, and I was kind of amazed to discover that I cite 29 songs in mine, to wit: "40", Bad, Beautiful Day, Bullet the Blue Sky, Elevation, The Fly, Kite, Love Is Blindness, Mothers of the Disappeared, Mysterious Ways, New Year's Day, One, Out of Control, Please, Pride, Running to Standstill, Satellite of Love, A Sort of Homecoming, Stuck in a Moment, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Trying to Throw Your Arms Around the World, Unknown Caller, Vertigo, Walk On, What's Going On, When Will I See You Again, Where the Streets Have No Name, With or Without You, Yahweh. Geez, think you cited enough songs there?]

Life after Emergent and the “Iron Maypole” movements

Another posting in conjunction with U2's concerts on the West Coast: Jeff Keuss from Seattle Pacific University offers reflectionf on things U2 has that the Church needs. It's all worth reading, and I particularly liked the comments about punk. Excerpt: "What U2 saw early on was that punk offered a prophetic push – the willingness to challenge authority and claim the airwaves for bigger issues and giving voice to the marginalized. Yet punk also became all about anger, violence for violence’s sake, and self-absorbed. What U2 has done since its early day is to take the punk call to be prophetic, yet still be in dialogue toward redemption – not merely destruction and deconstruction, but rebuilding and redeeming. As the church becomes more polarized and ideologically driven, this is the call worth listening to." Also, thanks to Jeff for the shoutout to my presentation at the U2 academic conference (which will be out later this year in the book collecting some of those papers - including Jeff's, I believe.)

Mark 4:11-12

I have a number of set pieces that I use when I speak on U2 to Christian groups, and one of them involves running quickly through an escalatingly complex list of Biblical allusions in their work. One of the most common questions I get in response is "How do they get away with this?" While I often laugh and say I don't know (and there is some truth in that), a new article by Deane Galbraith (whose work will also be represented in the anthology of papers from the first U2 conference) in the scholarly journal Biblical Interpretation has a fuller answer.

Entitled "Drawing Our Fish in the Sand: Secret Biblical Allusions in the Music of U2," ("secret" is a bit of a technical term here) the article shows how U2 "construct two different, perhaps even irreconcilable, groups of listeners" through the use of subtle, ambiguous allusions to Scripture which create a climate where "Christian references are hidden from mainstream listeners and media while being readily recognizable to their Christian fans." The initial part of the article documents U2's deliberate choice to keep their Christianity largely covert and difficult to pin down (a posture which has relaxed dramatically after Bono's engagement with American evangelicalism through DATA, but which anyone who was a fan in the 80s and 90s will remember vividly!), drawing on interviews and on some heretofore little-cited material from the presentation Bono, Edge and Larry gave to Christian artists at a Ghettout event in 1981.

Galbraith continues with a treatment of different kinds of allusions ("a figure which invites a knowledgeable reader to depart from her linear progression through the alluding text, by providing a marker to one or more evoked texts... in a manner which guides but does not wholly specify the relevant relationships between the texts" - note that this is substantially more complex than just "Bono's quoting the Bible"). The paper then concludes with some very interesting examples contrasting readings of particular songs by Biblically-literate versus non-Biblically-literate listeners (e.g. "Sunday Bloody Sunday," "Until the End of the World," "I'll Go Crazy If...," and perhaps most entertainingly "Breathe." FYI, if you've shared your opinion about NLOTH Bible allusions on a fan forum, your post just may be cited!)

Since Brill publishes this journal, the article will cost you an arm and a leg if you can't find a nearby university or seminary that has a subscription, but it's worth a read even if you think you know a lot about the topic already. I think it is important to keep in mind Galbraith's overall point, that what we have in U2 is not lyrics that are quite obviously explicitly Christian and a lot of people don't get, but lyrics that consistently, quite deliberately leave possibilities open to invite more than one reading.

Finishing the race strong

When we began collecting submissions for Get Up Off Your Knees, it immediately became apparent that a very high number of preachers from all traditions -- though they might not know anything about U2's history, about their stated faith commitments, or about any of their full albums -- sure did know the song "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."

I began to suspect, in fact, that one or more illustrations based on it had been spread worldwide by one of those "preacher's helps" services that serves up pre-digested bits of culture to incorporate into your sermons for $39.99 a year. Email after email was arriving in my inbox with submissions that briefly quoted the title and then moved on to the preacher's real topic. Of course, there were also some good sermons on the song -- Steve Stockman's reading in tandem with Philippians 3, and Darlene Pryds' use of it to reflect on the overall seeking spirit of a generation, both made it into the book. If memory serves, we may have said no to one or two other quality submissions simply because we didn't want to overdo references to one title when U2's catalog is so rich in homiletical potential.

At any rate, by the time the book came out I basically never wanted to read another reflection on this song -- and its refrain continues to be, so far as I can see, the most frequently used piece of U2's art in Christian contexts. To avoid redundancy, I've long since stopped linking material here that simply refers to the title or last verse, or uses the song to illustrate the simple idea that "we're all looking for something in life...." I've wondered, in fact, if there can possibly be anything else to say in dialogue with this piece of music.

The current installment of @U2's occasional column Like a Song answers that: Yes. There is definitely more to say in dialogue with this piece of music. Do not miss this soulful, thoughtful, and balanced piece of writing by Matt McGee.

Can a rock band change the world?

Jeff Keuss -- another presenter from the U2 Conference -- has an article on U2 in the current issue of Response: The Seattle Pacific University Magazine.  It's a bit of a retrospective with some interesting comments along the way. Excerpt:
The closing tracks of U2 albums usually function as benedictions and “songs of sending” — an overt turn to the liturgical and a direct assessment of Christendom and the Christ that can sometimes get lost within it. Whether it is the direct biblical quotation in “40” from War, or the reframing of Pilgrim’s Progress for the e-generation in “The Wanderer” from Zooropa, or the whispering cry of the Psalmist in “Wake Up Dead Man” from Pop, or the call of grace from All That You Can’t Leave Behind — U2 continues to draw its productions to a close with an invitation to something more, more than words and music can convey.... 
The band became superstars in the late ’80s singing about the already-but-not-yet character of God’s reign in “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” and they now seem to rest in the assurance that amidst the uncertainty and pain in this life, to paraphrase Rattle and Hum, Love has indeed come to town, and for now maybe that is what we need the most.

Seven Things Every Worship Leader Should Learn from U2

Every once in a while I make a note of something I want to link to and then lose track of it entirely.  Just realized that I did this with a reflection put up some months ago by a leader of the ICON ministry at First United Methodist Church of Pensacola, Florida after attending a 360 show.  So here it is: Seven Things Every Worship Leader Should Learn from U2 : ICON.

Sound and Light

The folks over at Interference asked if I might expand my comments here on the Claw into a brief article for them. If you'd like to read the results, here they are. Thanks guys! Thanks also to @U2 for linking the same U2 Sermons material in this week's OTR.

Stadium Prophets and Psalmists

At the UCCF Theology Network site, you can download a talk called "U2: The Stadium Prophets and Psalmists" given at a recent meeting of the European Leadership Forum by Mark Meynell, a name that will be familiar to readers here from previous links. It's in PDF. Though largely on an introductory level, there are some nice stops along the way: I quite like the charts (Bono personas, U2's articulations of human experience, more) and the section on distinctions between a poet and a preacher (especially its closing comment, so a propos to this band: "of course it gets confusing when poets do start to preach."

U2’s Class Act

A Fordham student writes for Roman Catholic site "Busted Halo" about the experience of U2's performance on her campus.

theology kungfu: The Comedy of U2's 'No Line on the Horizon'

Catching up with some linking I skipped the past week. Jeff Keuss usually offers interesting and provocative theological takes on U2, and this trip through NLOTH is no exception. It begins by asking whether U2's entire body of work is more like a tragedy or a comedy in dramatic terms, then continues with thoughts on faith versus certainty, the call of beauty, and the nature of "a love you can't defeat." Long but worth it. Excerpt:
As Bono goes on in "Stand Up Comedy", we "can stand up for hope, faith and love" as the grand Christian virtues, but perhaps there is more to it than this. As Bono continues that verse, he decries choosing knowledge and will power over faith when he sings "while I´m getting over certainty/ Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady." This double challenge - (1) dropping the search for certainty in favor of faith, and (2) allowing God to... well... *be* God becomes the liberating truths for the protagonist.
Another acknowledgment of the 'comedy' that we are called to is found in the focus on beauty. There is the acknowledgement in "Get on your boots" that humanity needs to realize our beauty... In true beauty, we are lead to the truth of things and in many respects, we are led to the Divine. As ones made 'beautiful' ("you don't know how beautiful you are") we are also called back to true/truth nature as made in the Imago Dei - the 'dictator of the heart.'

A NLOTH lyric devotional: "How, then, has God left himself open to interpretation?"

If you've wondered about the presence of any kind of story arc in NLOTH, have a look at this extraordinary meditation, made up completely of lyrics in the order they appear on the album, by Brian Draper of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. Includes reflection questions with very apt thematic Biblical connections at the end. Seriously, folks, print this one out and put it to use.

The Dude Abides on NLOTH

A lovely piece by Cathleen Falsani talking through her reactions to, and some of the background of, U2's new album. Excerpt:
"There is plenty of rock-n-roll levity and grandeur on No Line on the Horizon, but it is eclipsed by the heart and soul of this album — perhaps the most dynamic gospel music I've ever heard."

Grace inside a sound

I take back my statement that nothing of real theological substance has yet been written on NLOTH. Go check out this piece by Steven Harmon. Excerpt:
The basic message of No Line is that earth is not yet heaven, and therefore the album summons us to "Get On Your Boots" and work toward the day when things will fully be on earth as they are in heaven -- when heaven and earth will be indistinguishable, and there will at last be no line on the horizon. Moving in that direction requires the triumph "of vision over visibility" ("Moment of Surrender"), an echo of an earlier formulation of the same insight: that the things that last and that come at the last constitute "a place that has to be believed to be seen" ("Walk On" from 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind). It also requires an inner transformation wrought by a receptive hearing of the voice of God ("Unknown Caller") and a faithful reception of the love of God which requires that one both "stand up" for it and "sit down" to receive it ("Stand Up Comedy"). The central eschatological metaphor of No Line is the sound of the divine song, heard only by those who have the ears to hear it, yet unconsciously sought by everyone, for all people were created to hear and sing this song. Seven of the album's 11 songs invoke that metaphor in one way or another.

BTW, my answer to your "fifth point Calvinist" jab, Steve, is that the sense of the line can just as easily be "Justified, you and I will magnify the Magnificent until we die." ;-)

Between: Tryin' to throw your arms around the world (1)

A brief older piece on spirituality in U2, which maintains that its two chief characteristics are "movement" and "failure."