U2

‘The bodice of my new costume caught on the handlebar …’

The Centre for Public Christianity (CPX) has posted two recent interviews with Paul Fiddes. And there’s more Fiddes here on ‘The End of the World: A Work in Progress’.
Frank Rees posts on ‘Christian Freedom’ and a free church.
John Pilger on why Tony Blair must be arrested.
A public lecture by Professor Steve Reicher (professor of social psychology at the University of St Andrew’s) titled ‘Beyond the Banality of Evil’. The lecture, which goes for about 85 minutes, critically addresses Hannah Arendt’s hypothesis on the banality of evil arguing that those who commit extreme acts are not aware of the consequences of their actions; rather, they celebrate these consequences as moral.
Jim Gordon posts on R S Thomas, the Crucified God and the virtue of metaphysical humility.
Rick Floyd posts on Disability and Grace.
Kimlyn J. Bender reviews Gunton’s The Barth Lectures. My own review of Gunton’s volume can be read here.
Sung-Sup Kim reviews David Gibson’s Reading the Decree: Exegesis, Election and Christology in Calvin and Barth. My own review of this is here.
Ben Myers, aka Mr Tomato Plant, shares two chapters of his forthcoming Man Booker Prize-shortlisted novel on gelato and the girl who buttons her coat as her ‘dad arrives to close the shop’.
Here’s two books I’m waiting for: The Pastor: A Memoir by Eugene H. Peterson, and Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom by Peter J. Leithart
Finally, I’m enjoying U2’s Go Home: Live from Slane Castle.

No Line on the Horizon

‘… No Line on the Horizon is mostly restless, tentative and confused. It’s not terrible, but it feels like the work of musicians torn between the comfort of the present and the lure of one last run into the adventurous past … Not surprisingly, the album lacks a unified feel. On a few tracks, the Edge, drummer Larry Mullen Jr. and bassist Adam Clayton sound at home rumbling through the verses and blowing out the choruses in the old familiar way. But as No Line trudges on, it slumps under the weight of its own need to surprise … U2 has clearly found itself stuck in a very strange moment of self-reckoning’. – Josh Tyrangiel, ‘U2’s Unsatisfied — and Unsatisfying — New Album’. Time Magazine, 26 February, 2009.

Bono on belief and confusion

bono

‘Belief and confusion are not mutually exclusive … I’m sure you question your atheism, just as I question faith. You have to pummel it to make sure that it can withstand it, to make sure you can trust it’. – Christian Scharen, One Step Closer: Why U2 Matters to Those Seeking God (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2006), 117.

HT: CPX (Centre for Public Christianity)

Conference – U2: The Hype and the Feedback

An academic conference on U2 – U2: The Hype and the Feedback – is being planned for May 13-15, 2009.

Speakers include Anthony DeCurtis, Steve Turner, Jim Henke, Cathleen Falsani and Matt McGee.

There’s also a Call for Papers for any who are interested and can get to Times Square, New York City.

More details here.

U2

‘The Holy Spirit is so present’. So said one U2 fan reflecting upon a recent U2 concert. Over at Interference.com, there’s a forum on spiritual experiences at U2 concerts – a nice postmodern mix of experientialism and religiosity. As one fan said, ‘I can’t say for sure whether there such a thing as God, or Holy Spirit, but if there is I swear that it must feel like how I feel at a U2 concert!’ There it is … I knew God liked U2.