Posts tagged "U2"
U2: From Seekers, to Saints, to Sinners, to Saved by Grace–Part 4
Grace in Practice / Music / Theology

U2: From Seekers, to Saints, to Sinners, to Saved by Grace–Part 4

by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Jun 30, 2009 • 8 Comments

PART 4: SAVED BY GRACE

Back in May, Mockingbird began a series examining the intersection of the lives, the faith, and the music of the members of U2. You can read the earlier posts here, here, and here.

The series was born out of the observation that the personal journey of the band—in particular that of Bono, and to a lesser extent, The Edge—traces a narrative arc that is mirrored in the lives of so many Christians. That is, some crisis in our lives turns us into seekers, people looking for love or mercy (ultimately, a quest for a gracious God). Then,…

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U2: Seekers to Saints to Sinners to Saved (by Grace)–Part 3
Law / Music / Theology

U2: Seekers to Saints to Sinners to Saved (by Grace)–Part 3

by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on May 21, 2009 • 3 Comments

Part 3: Sinners

Our four-part series on U2′s spiritual journey continues with a look at how the band dealt with the failure of their early aggressive form of Christianity. As we saw last time, their spiritual seeking had led them to a deep faith in Jesus. But it was in the context of an extremely legalistic community. They could not reconcile the grace they saw in Jesus with the rules-based living this community sought to enforce.

You can hear a lot of the ensuing doubt in the 1987 classic album, The Joshua Tree, especially in the super-obviously-titled, “I Still Haven’t Found What…

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U2: Seekers to Saints to Sinners to Saved (By Grace)–Part 2
Law / Music / Religion / Theology

U2: Seekers to Saints to Sinners to Saved (By Grace)–Part 2

by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on May 13, 2009 • 5 Comments

Part 2: Saints

Our look at U2′s spiritual journey continues. In the first installment, I looked at the pain Bono suffered as a young man desperate for his father’s approval. This need for acceptance, along with the death of his mother, made Bono a spiritual seeker from an early age. In 1976, Bono–along with Edge and Larry Mullen–became a born-again Christian.

These three members of U2 became part of a Christian community called Shalom. It was a serious group. That’s why I call these guys “saints” during this phase. Shalom had weekly Bible studies, prayer meetings, and the like. They were working…

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U2: Seekers to Saints to Sinners to Saved (by Grace)–Part 1
Law / Music / Psychology / Religion

U2: Seekers to Saints to Sinners to Saved (by Grace)–Part 1

by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on May 7, 2009 • 8 Comments

Part 1: Seekers

Everyone knows that Bono, lead singer for U2, is an outspoken Christian. But do you know the story behind the band’s faith? Bono, Larry Mullen (drums), and Edge (guitar), were all members of a Christian community in Dublin called Shalom in the late 1970s and early 1980s. While in high school, they had all had deep conversion experiences of the “born again” variety. (Bob Dylan was doing the same thing in LA at the time, by the way.) Their faith deeply informed their early work—songs like “Gloria,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “40″ (see an amazing 1983 live performance…

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4.75 Links 4 The Weekend
Books / Film / Identity / Music / Theology / TV / Week In Review

4.75 Links 4 The Weekend

by David Zahl on Apr 3, 2009 • 9 Comments

1. Earlier this winter, many of us went bonkers for the recent video-game documentary King Of Kong. I don’t know how we missed it but a writer for Harpers spent 5 years with the infamous Billy Mitchell (he-of-perfect-pacman-and-mullet-fame) and published a fascinating and rather touching write-up this past summer. A few choice quotes:

“‘[Playing the perfect game of Pac-Man] is like Neil Armstrong walking on the moon,’ [Billy] told reporters afterward. ‘No matter how many people accomplish the feat, it will always be Armstrong who will be remembered for doing it first. And, best of all, it was an American.’”

“‘Pac-Man…

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Belated March Playlist
Music / Playlist

Belated March Playlist

by David Zahl on Apr 2, 2009 • 8 Comments

1. Wake Up (acoustic) – Arcade Fire
2. You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone – The Beach Boys
3. Breakdown – GNR
4. Back in ’72 – Bob Seger
5. Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now – The Smiths
6. Miracle Cure – Blank + Jones feat. Bernard Sumner
7. Give Some Love – JAZ
8. Just the Past – Peter, Bjorn & John
9. Moment Of Surrender – U2
10. By Thy Mercy – High Street Hymns
11. The Man – Pete Yorn and Natalie Maines
12. This Tornado Loves You – Neko Case
13. Through The Looking Glass – Peter Doherty
14. Read My Mind [Friday Night Lights mix]…

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Music / Reviews

Unknown Caller

by Ross on Mar 30, 2009 • 3 Comments

On my way back from NYC I was rocking out to the new U2 album, trying to stay awake, and got stuck listening to this song over an over again. It made me think of Steve Paulson’s – and the Bible’s – words about death and resurrection, forgiveness of sins, and Jesus saying, “Go home” to the healed paralytic. Apparently Bono was thinking about this too (or alternatively, perhaps he just has a lot of problems with technology in his life). Either way I could relate.

Footnote: This song immediately follows the track “Moment of Surrender” in which Bono…

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4.5 Links 4 The Weekend
Comics / Conferences / Literature / Music / Suffering

4.5 Links 4 The Weekend

by David Zahl on Mar 7, 2009 • 3 Comments

1. The amazing and important New Yorker article about David Foster Wallace’s final, unfinished novel, The Pale King. A couple of quick quotations from the article, the first from DFW himself:

“It seems like the big distinction between good art and so-so art lies . . . in be[ing] willing to sort of die in order to move the reader, somehow. Even now I’m scared about how sappy this’ll look in print, saying this. And the effort to actually to do it, not just talk about it, requires a kind of courage I don’t seem to have yet.”

And the second from…

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10 Favorite Non-Album U2 Tracks
Music / Playlist

10 Favorite Non-Album U2 Tracks

by David Zahl on Mar 5, 2009 • 11 Comments

The band is back in the spotlight in a major way this week, with the release of their new record and their stint on Letterman. Needless to say, it’s put me in a serious U2 phase. But having heard their more well-known songs so many times, I find myself digging deeper and deeper into the catalog to get my fix. Here’s my current top ten non-album tracks, heavy on latter-day material:

Staring At The Sun [Monster Truck Mix]. I have to confess, after Achtung Baby, Pop is my favorite U2 record. And being a sucker for Oasis, I always loved “Staring…

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I Found Grace Inside the Sound: U2′s No Line On The Horizon
Music / Reviews

I Found Grace Inside the Sound: U2′s No Line On The Horizon

by Mockingbird on Feb 23, 2009 • 9 Comments

Over the weekend Mockingbird received an anonymous, theological review of the new U2 record, which was just too good not to post. The record is out 3/3/09:

Good music is like a diamond; one can look at it from many different angles and see various facets of beauty. The new U2 album is like this, and I could have written a review about many other topics, such as its guitar riffs, its “moments of surrender”, or whether or not it is the “best ever” U2 album. Instead, I’m going to focus on the facet that played loudest to…

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I Love Jesus But I Drink A Little
Humor / Religion / Theology / TV

I Love Jesus But I Drink A Little

by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Feb 4, 2009 • 7 Comments

There are so many wonderful things one could say about this clip. It shows a conversation between Ellen DeGeneres and the 88-year-old Gladys Hardy, from Austin, TX. Gladys is disarming in her warmth, her obvious generosity of heart, and the way she doesn’t take herself (or anyone) too seriously. By her own admission, she is a Christian. What’s refreshing about her, however, is that she doesn’t live, as St. Paul said, “under the Law.” She seems aware, however, that there are many who do. That is to say, there are many people (including Christians) who believe that Christianity is a…

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The Pilgrim and His Lack of Progress: Bono talks Grace, Karma, Bible, and Sacrificial Lambs
Bible / Celebrity / Grace in Practice / Music / Religion / Theology

The Pilgrim and His Lack of Progress: Bono talks Grace, Karma, Bible, and Sacrificial Lambs

by David Zahl on Jan 9, 2008 • 6 Comments

The fashionable view of Bono is that he’s full of himself, the most self-important/pretentious of all rockstars, the absolute epitome of the celebrity messiah complex. That instead of crusading around the world, he should “shut up and sing” (or just shut up, period). Though it’s hard not to see where such a view might come from, it’s also absurdly cynical. It willfully ignores how, at least for the past 20 years, his earnestness has been tempered with a sophisticated sense of irony and unfailing knack for self-deprecation. And even so, the man has more guts than an army, yet is…

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Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)
Christmas / Music / Playlist

Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)

by David Zahl on Dec 3, 2007 • No Comments

I used to make mixtapes every December and send them out instead of Christmas cards. They started out as a way to share music with friends but eventually evolved into thematic things, where I would thread songs together to tell a story, usually the Christmas story.

When tape-decks became a scarcity, I tried making the mixes on cd, but it didn’t work as well. It sounds silly, but I missed the control that cassettes gave me over the listening experience (people being much more likely to push the skip button on a cd player than mess with the fast-forward/rewind on a…

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