As the semester starts....

My guess is that pretty much everyone who follows this blog would also be following @U2, but just in case you aren't, this week's "Off the Record" column is worth a look for a link to yet another college course on U2 and theology ("U2 and Theological Mission" with professor Marty Folsom, an offering in the Masters in Theology and Culture program at Northwest University in Washington) as well as an interesting post on Pop, making that Ephesians 5 connection with "Wake Up Dead Man," by a history professor at Montreat College in NC. 

U2 class on the docket at Washington & Jefferson College

Arlan Hess, a professor at Washington & Jefferson College in Pennsylvania, writes about a freshman seminar course on U2 that she has developed for this year using Exploring U2 as a textbook. The four sections of the syllabus sound great.

Another round of FPU's U2 course

Hey, readers, remember the Fresno Pacific University course on "Theology, Culture, and U2" that we've tracked a couple times on this blog? It's up again this fall. If you're anywhere in the area, be in touch with the professor, Tim Neufeld, to see if he'll let you audit!

Teaching U2: The Classroom as Theological Learning Space

One of the papers I had the pleasure of hearing at the U2 academic conference in 2009, but which sadly will not be in the Exploring U2 book, was Tim Neufeld and Jessica Mast's "Teaching U2: The Classroom as Theological Learning Space." I am glad to learn that a version of it, published last year in Pacific Journal, is now available online. Go forth and read!

Help out our friends at Fresno Pacific

Tim Neufeld, who as I've mentioned before is teaching "Theology, Culture, and U2" at Fresno Pacific this fall, has put a post up asking if a few fans would consider leaving comments about songs that have had a spiritual impact on them -- if you check it out, you'll get to see which assignment in the course he has in view, and you can also read his own essay answering the question as well as some excellent student work from previous years. Click on over to Occasio: Wanted: spiritually significant songs from the U2 catalog and add your voice to the mix!

Theology Culture and U2, round 3

Anyone who heard (or was sorry to miss) the presentation by Tim Neufeld and Jessica Mast at the U2 academic conference last fall, "Teaching U2: The Classroom as Theological Learning Space," will be happy to hear that Tim's course "Theology, Culture and U2" (MIN 340) is being offered again this fall at Fresno Pacific University. I believe this is the third iteration of the course, which I think surely must have to make it the longest-running college-level course focusing on U2 and their work. Here's Tim's faculty page: Fresno Pacific University - Tim Neufeld.

{Update: Tim shares a little about the course.}

"From Hippies to Hip Hop"

Just for the record, here's a brief article on a course being offered at the Ottawa School of Theology and Spirituality. Called "From Hippies to Hip Hop: Theology and Spirituality in Popular Music," the class has a syllabus including Depeche Mode, Robbie Williams, Prince, U2, Dylan, and others.

Make Straight the Path: Learning to Get Ready

Fordham theologian Tom Beaudoin blogs about his campus's upcoming U2 concert at Rock and Theology.

[Update: more news from Beaudoin here]

Our contributor and U2 author in his own right Steve Stockman is teaching a course next month at the Union Institute for Christian Training (Presbyterian Church in Ireland) called The Saints Are Coming: U2 Songs of Social Transformation. Here's a sample of what's on offer, taken from Week 3: "Original of the Species":
'Change the stories individuals and or nations live by and tell themselves and you change the individuals and nations.' What stories and theology are carried in songs for change? In a world where people are being de-humanised by politics, technology, consumerism and gender can songs re-humanise and give back dignity to the oppressed?

Theology, Culture and U2 2

I neglected to mention earlier that Tim Neufeld at Fresno Pacific is offering his “Theology, Culture and U2” course again this semester. Hello to all you students who have to read this blog for credit. I'm always open to conversation and questions!

Other readers, if you would like to see material from discussion of the previous time the course was offered, click on the label "FPU course" below. As the semester goes on, keep an eye on Tim's blog, where he'll be posting comments on how things are progressing.

In addition, readers here might want to take note that in one such summary post, Tim mentions that he is thinking of developing the course for an online format through Fresno Pacific. If you’re interested, he'd like you to leave a comment on his blog.

Caritas: Confessions of a Pop Culture Academic

Greg Stevenson blogs about how he became convinced that the serious study of popular culture has academic merit. Excerpt:
One of my favorite classes to teach at Rochester College is a class titled "Religion, Media, and Youth Culture." I created this as a team-taught class. I teach it along with one of our Psychology professors and one of our Communication professors. It is a valuable learning experience for the students to see how popular culture looks through the eyes of different disciplines. We'll watch an episode of Battlestar Galactica or Buffy the Vampire Slayer together and then the students get to witness and join three scholars from different disciplines in discussion of that episode. I, for instance, may explore that episode's use of christological imagery, the Psychology professor may examine its use of Jungian archetypes, and the Communication professor may examine how it relates to contemporary communication theories.

"prophetic rhetoric begins with discerning an alternative vision of Yahweh based in justice and compassion"

Laurie Britt-Smith, who teaches at the University of Detroit Mercy, will be excerpting some of her recent dissertation on Interference. Drawing on the work of Walter Brueggemann (who is often cited for his writing on the Psalms by U2 analysts), she examines contemporary Christians whom she sees as contemporary heirs of the prophetic tradition (in the Biblical sense of that term), including Dorothy Day, Jim Wallis, Martin Luther King Jr. and Bono. (I imagine you can guess which example we'll get to read about on Interference!) If you don't know what the Biblical sense of the term "prophet" is, read the first excerpt. Thanks to the folks at Interference for letting me know about this.

"Music with a Message"

A 2008 class on Old Testament Narratives at Calvin Theological Seminary offers a compilation of notes on U2’s use of OT motifs. It's not complete by any means, but is interesting to look at.

...or is it the Joshua Tree under the Bible?

The Society for Biblical Literature meets in Boston this fall, and as part of Monday's "Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible Section," Andrew Davies, Vice Principal & Director of the Graduate School at Mattersey Hall (a Christian training college rooted in the Pentecostal tradtion) will present a paper on "The Bible under the Joshua Tree: Biblical Imagery in the Music of U2." A rather well-worn topic, but I'm sure he'll have an interesting twist on it.

Bible Lectures at Pepperdine University

For anyone who'll be in the Malibu, California area in late April, Pepperdine University's 65th annual Bible Lectures will feature a class called My Faith Journey With U2 (How a Rock Band Bolstered My Faith, Broadened My Compassion, and Deepened My Ministry). The speaker, Andy Wall, is from the Conejo Valley Church of Christ and has some comments on U2 on their site as well.

Staley lectures

Steven Harmon from Campbell University Divinity School, whose work on U2 has been linked here more than once, emailed to say that he delivered the Staley Lectures Mar 24-26 at Campbell, where he used U2's "One" to talk about ecumenism. The flyer doesn't seem to be available online, so I'll give you the titles:
"Here to Play Jesus: Why Ecumenism Isn't Dead (John 17:20-23)"
"One, But Not the Same: Ecumenism 101"
"One Life with Each Other: The Theology of Ecumenism (Ephesians 4:1-6)"
"Leaves You If You Don't Care for It: 10 Things Young Christians Can Do for the Unity of the Church"

Theo 215 syllabus: Christian Morality

Interesting to note that last semester at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, "Christian Morality," a course which describes itself "as an introduction to the principles, methods and topics of Christian theological ethics," the professor used U2's spiritual and political commitments as "an ongoing case study concerning the relationship of Christian faith to popular culture." (Fresno Pacific is still the only school I know of to have offered a full-semester course on U2.)

Theology Culture and U2 course updates

Tim from Fresno Pacific is playing catch up with descriptions of the sessions of his U2 course last semester. First up this weekend is session 5, Innocence and Idealism: Boy, October, War. This session features reflections on songs from U2's first three albums, along with material on U2's formative sense of mission as evidenced in citations from the 1981 Ghettout retreat where Bono, The Edge, and Larry Mullen gave a presentation to a group of Christian musicians.

Second up is, not surprisingly, session 6, Into the Arms of America: Under a Blood Red Sky, Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree, highlighting the band's growing love/hate relationship with the USA. Tim reports that "'Bullet' was particularly meaningful because Dr. Mark Baker came into class to discuss his time in Honduras and El Salvador in the mid-80s, and his personal reaction to this song and the band."

As before, presentation notes and PowerPoints are available on Tim's blog.

I am a witness. What can I do?

A writeup of the World AIDS Day liturgy offered today by our friends in the Theology, Culture, and U2 class at Fresno Pacific. Includes PDFs of texts and the sermon.

Biblische Ausbildung on U2

[Update to the below: there's yet another Biblische Ausbildung U2 post now, on "The Wanderer," reading it together with Rob Vagacs' take on the song from Religious Nuts Political Fanatics, Bonhoeffer, and Ecclesiastes.]


I marked and lost track of these brief reflections, with accompanying ZooTV-era video, on "Where the Streets Have No Name" by Stephen Cook of Virginia Theological Seminary. The post focuses mostly on the "city" imagery and identifies the band as being "something of a favorite among seminary professors." Fortunately, the same blog covered "Beautiful Day" this week, tying it in with the Revised Common Lectionary reading for 1 Advent from Jeremiah 33, and I've remembered I meant to send readers over there to have a look.