I share this as both an explanation and an apology for the series I’m starting today, a theological analysis of the music of U2. By way of explanation, it’s simply to point out that a Christian examination of a popular rock band like U2 does fall in line with the general theme and purpose of my blog. By way of apology, though, it’s to acknowledge that in some ways, the music of U2 is far too easy a target for a blog that is ostensibly intent on finding theological meaning in unexpected places. When I was exploring the theological meaning of the popular Disney show, Gravity Falls, all sorts of surprising theological gems kept bobbing unexpectedly to the surface; it’s less likely that a similar exploration of U2’s music is going to yield near as many surprises.
They are, after all, one of the most Christian “secular” bands on the planet. Their song lyrics are replete with overt Christian imagery, and their approach to the rock-star lifestyle never really shocked the world with its hedonism, making them one of the safest choices for a Christian kid who didn’t really want to listen to Christian music. They were one of the only non-Christian bands my youth group leader endorsed in the semi-fundamentalist church of my teen years. Even today, their lead singer Bono is regularly quoted for his opinions on the deity of Jesus, the resurrection, or God’s preferential option for the poor. So they’re maybe not the best candidates for an unlikely source of theological reflection.
That said, I still think there may be some unexpected glimmers of theological gold to be found, if we take some time to pan in the musical river that is their 47-year-long career. For starters, we might note the uneasy relationship they have with the evangelical sub-culture, or the unique way they bridged the sacred and the secular in their song-writing, or their social-justice advocacy work, which so often rang with echoes of the Old Testament prophets.
We will get to each of these in turn, and more, as we survey the breadth of their musical output (which, at 15 plus studio albums is impressive by any count). I grew up listening to U2, and though they’ve never really been my favorite band, they’ve always been an ubiquitous presence in my musical trajectory. I am sure I listened to my cassette version of Joshua Tree until it wouldn’t play clearly any more. To this day I can still remember listening to Zooropa for the first time, and feeling like I was stepping into a musical world I never could have imagined existing, but was still strangely, intimately familiar to me.
I sort of lost track of the band after No Line of the Horizon, listening to Songs of Innocence a handful of times then moving on, and somehow missing Songs of Experience and Songs of Surrender altogether (to this day I still have to give those outings a listen). Nevertheless, there have been long stretches of my life where U2 was almost the only band I listened to, and when I was starting out as a guitarist, a good 75% of my repertoire consisted of U2 songs. Suffice it to say, then, that I will be speaking from a place of warm familiarity and tempered appreciation. After all, it was U2, I think, who challenged me to think through how the thing that makes Christian music truly Christian might not have anything to do with amount of Christian jargon it has in the lyrics, and how truly caring about the world—loving it well in the midst of all its political messiness and social injustices—is a vital Christian activity.
I hope to say much more on those themes in the weeks to come. In the meantime, and perhaps to establish some credibility as a fan, let me offer the list of my top ten favorite U2 albums, here in closing.
1. Achtung Baby
2. The Joshua Tree
3. Zooropa
4. All That You Can’t Leave Behind
5. Rattle and Hum
6. The Unforgettable Fire
7. Pop
8. How to Dismantle and Atomic Bomb
9. No Line on the Horizon
10. Songs of Innocence
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