U2 – NLOTH ‘Most Thoroughly Christian Project To Date’

Lots of people have been fascinated with Bono’s obsession with quasi-religious language in lots of his music and there are lots of songs in U2’s library which can be taken as epic anthems of faith. With the release of their newest album yesterday, one of the first questions for many people was ‘Does the trend continue?’

After watching their incredible performance of ‘Magnificent’ on Letterman last night, I came across an article this morning that describes ‘No Line On The Horizon’  as U2’s ‘most thoroughly Christian project to date.’

“Like the last two albums, No Line is much more overt in its Christian rendering of the world, what with lyrics like ‘Justified until we die/You and I will magnify/Oh, the Magnificent’ from the album’s second track,” commented Steven R. Harmon, an associate professor of divinity at Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Ala.

“Yet what qualifies this album as thoroughly Christian is not so much its pervasive biblical/theological images as its overarching eschatological vision,” he wrote Friday in a music review featured by the Associated Baptist Press.

The Christian themes in U2’s music have been widely recognized since their 1981 album, October, which was ranked as No. 41 on CCM Magazine’s 2001 list of the greatest Christian music albums of all time. Also included in the list was the group’s 1987 album, The Joshua Tree.

The article has some good stuff to say – check it out.

If you missed U2 last night on Letterman, here’s their performance – incredible! (Make sure you put your mouse over that little up arrow and click the HD button to get really nice video quality.)

4 Responses to “U2 – NLOTH ‘Most Thoroughly Christian Project To Date’”

1. milepost13 says:

   March 4, 2009 at 11:08 am

   that’s sweet. going to amazon to download the album right now.

   Reply
2. Conner says:

   March 5, 2009 at 10:39 pm

   Hmm….overarching eschatological vision…interesting.
   Magnificent is amazingly incredible and I do love it! Stand Up Comedy is the one I really want to do in Church though! Wowzers!

   Reply
3. bud chapplain says:

   March 6, 2009 at 12:15 am

   Well …. don’t let the bright lights fool you…

   Reply
4. tomax7 says:

   July 1, 2009 at 6:54 pm

   …like bud said. Great song, but it is about Mary, that is the Roman Catholic version.

   Reply