Seeking and Finding

The first decade of the 21st century saw a mini-explosion of "Gospel According to..." books that connected the Christian message with different elements of popular culture. It grew mainly from two sources -- the willingness of pastors and theologians to engage with some of that culture and the vastly improved quality of enough cultural elements to make it worthwhile.  Robert Short could write The Gospel According to Peanuts, but there was no call for The Gospel According to The Dukes of Hazzard (See, Bo and Luke, making their way the only way they know but with that being more than the law will allow? That's the Galatian legalizer controversy right there, man!).

Mark Pinsky's The Gospel According to the Simpsons kicked off the trend, but few of the subsequent books were written by someone with Pinsky's background as a longtime newspaper religion writer. And some of the qualified writers picked material more because they liked it than because there was any real theological substance to it, meaning the trend shallowed out sooner than most. But it's fun to run across books that take both poles of their inquiry seriously enough to make you think about them.
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Gregory Thornbury and Ned Bustard didn't compose a whole book that looked for Christian themes and connections in the venerable sci-fi show Doctor Who, which was probably a wise choice. The show began in 1963 and had a multi-year gap during the 1990s before a modern reboot made it probably better-known than it ever was during its original run. There have been a legion of show-runners, writers and actors who've brought us the adventures of a certain Galifreyan "Time Lord" in his slightly malfunctioning time-and-spaceship called a TARDIS. Which means there are both an overflow of connections and a lack of any one overarching theme to try to use. So Thornbury, a philosophy professor, and Bustard, a graphic designer working mostly for religious groups and institutions, solicited essays from a variety of people about some of the many different connections they saw in different episodes of the show.

The writers of 2015's Bigger on the Inside come from several faith traditions. Some are academics and some are religious professionals. They share an enjoyment of the Who universe, its quirks and foibles and fun. Some are written with a more academic tone, complete with endnote vapor trails, while others are a little more casual. None dive too deeply into their subject matter, which is a good idea for a show that has often had its lead actors menaced by people inside a variety of different ill-fitting rubber suits. Who episode writers probably rarely, if ever, intended to teach some kind of theological truth. But any work of art that wants to try to wrestle a little with questions of human existence is going to open itself to having those questions answered by theological-minded folks, and the essays of Bigger do that.

Organized according to different Christian doctrinal issues like the prayer, the problem of evil, temptation and so on, each chapter focuses on an episode in which the action and resolution address its titular issue in a manner reflective of some traditional orthodox beliefs on the subject. Some of the chapters are stronger than others, and a couple strain enough at their reach that their inclusion might have been reconsidered.

A major strength of Bigger on the Inside is the use of episodes from the pre-reboot era, 1963 to 1989. Though hampered by more primitive special-effects technology, many of these episodes offer some intriguing handles to grab hold of for questioning. Especially as writers during this era were less concerned with the kind of overt messaging that can torpedo the entertainment value of just about anything. Most of the essays presume some familiarity with the show and its universe, so a "non-Whovian" reader might do well to have the Wikipedia entry for the show open while reading. Either way, Bigger on the Inside offers some fun ways to think about important things like Incarnation and which Doctor and companion were the best (Tom Baker as the 4th Doctor and Louise Jameson as Leela, according to your humble blogger).

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When you combine a songwriting and poetic voice like Bruce Springsteen with a firm Roman Catholic upbringing you get a catalog filled with Biblical allusions and theological claims about the nature of human existence, the role of God and the reality of the divine in everyday life. So Springsteen was tailor-made for one of the "Gospel According to..." books, and indeed Unitarian minister Jeffrey B. Symynkywicz wrote one in 2008. It was not one of the shallowest among that trend of titles, but Symynkywicz's decision to organize his book as an album-by-album exploration and finding a single theology or single idea running through the entire catalog limited his ability to dig deeply into the more meaningful parts of Springsteen's work.

Rutgers University Professor of Jewish Studies Azzan Yadin-Israel took a different tack when preparing his own 2016 work, The Grace of God and the Grace of Man. Yaddin-Israel's professional work involves exploring texts themselves, such as ancient Jewish poetry, Biblical writings, the Talmud or different midrashic commentaries on Old Testament stories. He decided to examine different Springsteen songs as texts themselves, rather than as clues to a single or small number of main themes. He also focuses only on the theological questions or issues raised in the song itself, rather than Springsteens's own religious beliefs and opinions. Obviously those beliefs influence the material, but Yaddin-Israel takes Springsteen's own admonition seriously: "Trust the art, be suspicious of the artist. He's generally untrustworthy himself." Yaddin-Israel wrote before Springsteen often reinforced that idea in his own Broadway show, but he still refrains from trying to link what a particular song may say to what Springsteen himself might say on a particular matter.

Yaddin-Israel divides Grace into three parts. In the first he explores Springsteen's earlier catalogue, up through Darkness on the Edge of Town. It's the most self-consciously poetic period of his work, filled with outsized characters and word-blizzard street folktales that resolve only at a little distance. The center section revolves around different theological themes and the way different songs express them. This section combines songs from different eras of Springsteen's career. The final section picks a handful of songs in which Springsteen writes and sings a "midrash," or retelling, of a Biblical story to highlight an aspect of its meaning or even an alternative understanding.

In focusing on Springsteen's most overtly theological and Biblically-influenced writing, Yaddin-Israel chooses to leave out parts of the catalog that have less of those qualities. This means that some of his more famous work -- like the entirety of Born in the U.S.A. -- won't be found here or will be referenced in passing. Many of those songs may reflect on their subject matter just as deeply as some of the ones that Yaddin-Israel includes, but their lack of theological or Biblical flavoring puts them off this particular menu.

All three sections, as well as an insightful introduction covering the possibility of gleaning theological insight from pop or rock music and an interesting conclusion about these influences in Springsteen's writing, are worth reading. The middle section organized along themes bogs down a little and probably reaches for some of its allusions, but it's still a rewarding read.

That conclusion mentioned above is one Springsteen himself has reached, according to several interviews. His Catholic school upbringing remains a part of his songwriting vocabulary in the same way that the blue-collar life of Freehold, N.J., does, and the same way that the cars-and-girls rock and soul songs of the 1950s and 1960s do. My own Methodist founder, John Wesley, referred to himself as a "man of one book," meaning that his speaking and writing was so infused with Biblical imagery and language that he used those scriptural passages as his own language. Springsteen is by no means a man of one book, but the same book which influenced Mr. Wesley walks through his words and songs more than many might suspect. I wonder if I could pitch that to a publisher...