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. 

For those near London....

All Souls Langham Place invites you to a U2-related event this Friday May 13th, beginning at 7pm. Entitled U2: a world beyond the horizon, it will present "the spiritual journey of a global rock band. A multi-media presentation by Mark Meynell, lifelong U2 fan, as he reflects on what we can learn from the worldview of one of the biggest bands in history." Readers here will have seen lectures and posts by Mark Meynell linked over the years, so it should be a good evening.

The rule has been disproved

Steve Stockman has a nice reflection today on "Window in the Skies," a song around which his church is doing a themed service Sunday (if anyone happens to be in Belfast, check it out). I like his comments both on the movement from objective to subjective, and on the context of "the rule has been disproved" (I'd never asked myself what that line meant.)

an evening in the songs of U2

An invitation to anyone in the Belfast area -- an evening featuring the songs of U2 covered by several artists along with a look at the band's most recent two tours, Vertigo and U2360, by Steve Stockman and Chris Hunter. LET ME IN THE SOUND - an evening in the songs of U2 takes place at Fitzroy Presbyterian Church, Sunday October 3, at 7pm.  If you're not in the area, you might enjoy the U2-related "Lyric of the Week" feature currently running on Stocki's blog in conjunction with the event.

Speaking tonight

Again, anyone in the Boston area is welcome to come hear me speak beginning at 7 this evening at Ockham's Kegger ("Nothing Like a Pint to Help Simplify Complex Ideas") which meets at the Lobster Trap (behind Woodman's, 121 Main Street) in Essex, MA. My topic is "The Staying Power of U2 in Theological Discourse" -- in other words, why do Christian theologians and leaders just keep on working with this band's material?

Grace Inside a Sound

Check out a neat handout by Steve Harmon from a recent presentation on the theology of No Line on the Horizon. In bullet-point form, it enumerates examples of "how the theological framework that makes sense of the U2 catalog as an expression of Christian art functions" in NLOTH and in the 360 tour. (Incidentally, an earlier handout setting forth this theological framework more generally is here.)

Another invitation

This is a bit last-minute, but I've been engaged to step in as a substitute speaker for a pub theology series north of Boston which is focusing on rock 'n' roll. I'll be asking what it is about U2 that gives them such an enduring presence in theological discourse. So if you happen to be in the Boston area and free next Tues Feb 2nd from 7 - 9:30 pm, please join us at Ockham's Kegger ("Nothing Like a Pint to Help Simplify Complex Ideas") which meets at the Lobster Trap (behind Woodman's, 121 Main Street) in Essex, MA.

Update to today's first post

Update: A working version of the video from "Creative Community" is now up.

Stability, conflict, mission

Here is an iTunes podcast link to download my address at Gordon College's Convocation a week ago entitled "Creative Community: Lessons from U2." There is a YouTube version here, but there's some problem with the video file and part of the middle of the talk is missing.

As I say in the address, it is rather out of character for me to deliver public statements about U2 that focus on anything but their artistic output -- and frankly listening back to it feels odd. But it was interesting to try looking not at U2 as a topic, but at a topic (community) that I thought would be relevant specifically to a college-age Christian audience, while drawing examples from U2. Thanks again to Gordon for the invitation.

2 Sundays in Alabama

For any of you who may be near Birmingham Alabama in the USA, U2 author and theologian Steve Harmon will be speaking on the band at Disciples Fellowship at 10:50AM on both Jan 24 ("Theology Beneath the Noise, Below the Din: U2's Christian Imagination") and Jan 31 ("The Theology of U2's No Line on the Horizon.") (Read a previous Steve Harmon piece on NLOTH here.)

Here's where we've got to be/ Love and community

I will not be quoting that rather saccharine lyric, but I'll be speaking at Gordon College's Convocation this Friday Jan 15th on "Creative Community: Lessons from U2." If you are in the Boston area and free at 10:25 AM, the event is open to the public and takes place in the main chapel.

Recent audio by Jeff Keuss

Those of you who heard Jeff Keuss at the U2 academic conference (and maybe those who didn't!) might enjoy giving a listen to this 40-minute podcast by him called "U2 and the Future of Transformational Leadership." It's on iTunes, taken from a recent event at Seattle Pacific University. (I haven't had a chance to listen yet but everything I've heard him do on the band has been thoughtful and insightful.)

NLOTH discussion resource

In verifying links for a quick guide to learning more about spiritual aspects of U2's work, I discovered that I'd missed a new discussion guide to No Line on The Horizon put up recently by the Damaris Trust. It does a nice job highlighting some of the album's own main themes: time, change, love, optimism (and I John 4) -- as well as linking songs to wider spiritual issues. FYI, Damaris also has previously made available, without cost, similar group study guides to All That You Can't Leave Behind and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

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."

For New York City area readers....

If you're in the NYC area, we're asked to announce that Mockingbird Ministries (http://mockingbirdnyc.com/) invites you to attend BONO AT THE END OF THE WORLD: A Theological Journey Through the Lives and Music of U2 on this coming Wednesday, April 29 from 8-9:30pm at The Cave at St George's - 209 E 16th St.(down the stairs on 16th St. between 3rd Ave and the square, at St. George's Episcopal Church). The Rev. Nathan Hart, whom some of you will know from this blog's comments section, is teaching the class.

Audio of an older U2 lecture

While we all digest the "No Line" track version 2 and wait to see what we'll hear next...
Thanks to Doug who writes to say that an MP3 of a talk entitled "How to Dismantle an Atomic Band: U2, Celebrity and Christian Identity" by Ned O'Gorman from the Francis Schaeffer Institute at Covenant Theological Seminary is available online (scroll down). I posted about this when it happened in 2005, but I don't think any audio was made available then, so just in case some of you want to hear it...

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?

Readers might enjoy taking a look at the workshop description for "U2: The Stadium Psalmists, Prophets and Visionaries" offered by Mark Meynell (of All Souls Langham Place) at the European Leadership Forum last month. Meynell's personal blog also features several interesting reflections on particular lyrics in the run-up to the workshop.

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"