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PCUSA and Here Comes the Sun: Listening for the musicThis past weekend I had the chance to speak to the Seattle Presbytery as part of their Presbyfest event for laity, deacons, ruling and teaching elders. Needless to say, the conversations from the Fellowship meeting in Orlando and the formation of the Evangelical Covenant Order (ECO) was weighing on people. I wrote a bit about the recent discussions in a previous blog posting, but at this event … There’s more to read here. R.E.M. R.I.P. – It’s the end of the world as we know it… and I feel fine.Music fans across the blogosphere posted and reposted the news that longtime Athens, Georgia band R.E.M. had decided, in their words, to “call it a day” and disband for the foreseeable future. As Michael Stipe said on their website:
Posted in art, belief, faith, music, R.E.M., Rock and Theology
Tagged Faith, music, R.E.M., theology, U2, Your Neighbor's Hymnal
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Holy Saturday: Following Job beyond a Heretical Praise SongPassion week thrusts us into a realm of uncertainty amidst the certainty of Christ that should unsettle us to our very core. As we sit now before both an empty cross and a tomb now filled with our Savior – is it right to wonder where this is all leading? To ask what is going to happen now? Sure, many Christians know how the story ends (SPOILER ALERT!) and the fact … There’s more to read here.
Posted in CCM, faith, Holy Saturday, How Deep The Father's Love For Us, Jesus, Lent, music, Stuart Townsend, theology, Uncategorized
Tagged Bible, CCM, Easter, Holy Saturday, How Deep The Father's Love For Us, Lent, music, Stuart Townsend, theology
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Lenten music: Bonhoeffer, Dead Poet’s Society and the gift of being an alternative songI wanted to share a portion of a letter from Dietrich Bonhoeffer written to his friend Eberhard Bethge while Bonhoeffer was in prison. Taproot Theatre is currently showing a marvelous dramatization of Bonhoeffer’s last days called “The Beams are Creaking” and it led me to re-read his Letters and Papers from Prison. Given that I just finished a book on pop music and that I think most naturally in … There’s more to read here.
Posted in belief, cantus firmus, culture, Dead Poet's Society, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, existential musings, faith, Imagination, Lent, music, theology
Tagged art, cantus firmus, Dead Poet's Society, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, existential musings, film, Lent, Letter and Papers from Prison, music, Polyphony of Life, Your Neighbor's Hymnal
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Lenten light amidst darkness: John 9, Pablo Neruda, and PleasantvilleThe Lectionary has set John 9 as the appointed text to be read this week. This is a fascinating encounter of Jesus with a man who is born blind and one of the longest passages in the New Testament where Jesus is completely absent – over 20 verses in the chapter has Jesus no where to be found. It is a chapter that deals with one of the oldest metaphors … There’s more to read here.
Posted in Gospel of John, Jesus, Lent, music, Pablo Neruda, Poetry, theology
Tagged art, Bible, Gospel of John, Jesus, Kione Greek, Lent, Pablo Neruda, theology
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CCM as Lenten practice: Finding Larry Norman in the desertLent is a season of justice – it is a season of deep reconciliation, of bare bones truth-telling, a redirecting of hungers and longings that have gone astray, but it is essentially a season of justice. As I will tell students as we enter Ash Wednesday that they are called to remember along with Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:19 that they too will “return to the ground from which they … There’s more to read here.
Posted in CCM, contemporary christian music, Larry Norman, Lent, music, theology
Tagged CCM, church, Contemporary Christian Music, Jesus, Larry Norman, Lent, music, theology
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top ten albums of the decade – a long ode to 9/11Where were you on September 11th, 2001? As for me, I was nine hours ahead of my family and friends in Seattle as I was finishing a day of work. Sitting in my office in the Divinity faculty at the University of Glasgow, I received a phone call from Diana saying that “something was happening in New York” and that I should log onto the computer. An hour later I … There’s more to read here. Top Ten Albums of 2010 – a season of light and a season of darkness“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” So wrote Charles Dickens in the opening line to The Tale of Two Cities. And yet this is only the beginning. As the rest of the sentence continues:
Posted in art, church, existential musings, faith, Glee, music, Music Writing, television, theology, top ten, U2
Tagged art, church, Emergent, music, theology, top ten 2010, U2
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Dragon Tattoo, Crazy Heart, Facebook and the End of ForgivenessLike so many people this year, I have been swept up into the world of Lisbeth Salander and the Millennium Trilogy of the late Stieg Larsson that began with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Needless to say, the books follow a fairly predicable pot boiler thriller formula akin to a Scott Turow, Robert Ludlum or Tom Clancy novel: an innocence protagonist is thrust (whether by chance or fate – you … There’s more to read here. |
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© 2011 Jeff Keuss |