In Denmark it is still common to characterize Bob Dylan as a left wing protest singer. However, this view is unjustified. On the contrary, Christianity is central to his songwriting, and not only in the period around 1980, when he presented himself as a believing Christian. Religiosity is not only the basis of Dylan’s work from the debut in 1962 to today, but the very core of many of his songs. Sustained by a large number of quotes from, and references to, the Bible, the theme of the flood and judgement day is one of the themes running through Dylan’s songs, and, based on a belief in providence, it is used to criticize secular modernity. However, this criticism is formulated in a modernistic language of images, and therefore Dylan can be characterized as a Christian modernist. He can be compared to T. S. Eliot, and uses an indirect, dialogical and dialectical method reminiscent of Søren Kierkegaard: to speak of Christian belief in the language of modernity with the purpose of re-Christening modernity.
{"title":"CHAPTER 7 Hard Rain: The End of Times and Christian Modernism in the Work of Bob Dylan","authors":"A. Andersen","doi":"10.23865/noasp.74.ch7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.74.ch7","url":null,"abstract":"In Denmark it is still common to characterize Bob Dylan as a left wing protest singer. However, this view is unjustified. On the contrary, Christianity is central to his songwriting, and not only in the period around 1980, when he presented himself as a believing Christian. Religiosity is not only the basis of Dylan’s work from the debut in 1962 to today, but the very core of many of his songs. Sustained by a large number of quotes from, and references to, the Bible, the theme of the flood and judgement day is one of the themes running through Dylan’s songs, and, based on a belief in providence, it is used to criticize secular modernity. However, this criticism is formulated in a modernistic language of images, and therefore Dylan can be characterized as a Christian modernist. He can be compared to T. S. Eliot, and uses an indirect, dialogical and dialectical method reminiscent of Søren Kierkegaard: to speak of Christian belief in the language of modernity with the purpose of re-Christening modernity.","PeriodicalId":370963,"journal":{"name":"A God of Time and Space","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122732499","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The essay explores the cover art on 24 studio albums released by Bob Dylan since his debut in 1962, each one with a photo of the artist on the front cover. The photos are read chronologically in accordance with a social semiotic understanding. Any text, including such elements as names, album titles, song titles and motifs, but also formal means, e.g. compositions and geometric patterns underlying the compositions, are understood as meaningful utterances in their own right, not only as illustrations for other texts. The essay also maps out some parallels between the idol as a mediated person belonging to modernity and as a premodern religious concept. A not surprising finding is that parts of early Christian icon art are continued in modern photographic portraits. However, I have not found anything indicating that traces of early religious art are more prominent on Bob Dylan’s albums than on other albums.
{"title":"CHAPTER 5 The Visual Dylan: Religious Art, Social Semiotics and Album Covers","authors":"Geir Winje","doi":"10.23865/noasp.74.ch5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.74.ch5","url":null,"abstract":"The essay explores the cover art on 24 studio albums released by Bob Dylan since his debut in 1962, each one with a photo of the artist on the front cover. The photos are read chronologically in accordance with a social semiotic understanding. Any text, including such elements as names, album titles, song titles and motifs, but also formal means, e.g. compositions and geometric patterns underlying the compositions, are understood as meaningful utterances in their own right, not only as illustrations for other texts. The essay also maps out some parallels between the idol as a mediated person belonging to modernity and as a premodern religious concept. A not surprising finding is that parts of early Christian icon art are continued in modern photographic portraits. However, I have not found anything indicating that traces of early religious art are more prominent on Bob Dylan’s albums than on other albums.","PeriodicalId":370963,"journal":{"name":"A God of Time and Space","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124314409","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Over the years, Bob Dylan has been able to go through many changes as an artist and as a person – always flexible, always in touch with his life, his aging, always true to himself, but not to his audience. While so many of us seem to stick to our old ways, Dylan has had this rare ability to keep on moving on, like a rolling stone. How has this been possible? In this chapter I present what I call Bob Dylan’s method for personal transformation. I have found ten commandments, or ten rules, that Dylan seems to be following. To show the importance of the commandments I assess Dylan’s method for personal transformation in relation to Philip Salim Francis’s research among 82 Evangelicals who underwent a sea-change of religious identity through the intervention of arts, published in the book When Art Disrupts Religion. Bob Dylan’s ten commandments are not only 10 great tools for a creative life, they are also a great roadmap for a flexible religious life and good medicine against all sorts of fundamentalism.
多年来，作为一名艺术家和一个人，鲍勃·迪伦经历了许多变化——永远灵活，永远与他的生活、他的衰老保持联系，永远忠于自己，而不是他的听众。虽然我们中的许多人似乎都坚持自己的老路，但迪伦却拥有这种罕见的能力，像一块滚石一样不断前进。这怎么可能呢?在本章中，我将介绍我称之为鲍勃·迪伦的个人转变方法。我发现了迪伦似乎在遵循的十条戒律，或者说十条规则。为了展示戒律的重要性，我将迪伦的个人转变方法与菲利普·萨利姆·弗朗西斯(Philip Salim Francis)对82名福音派教徒的研究进行了对比，他们通过艺术的干预经历了宗教身份的巨变，该研究发表在《当艺术扰乱宗教》(When Art Disrupts Religion)一书中。鲍勃·迪伦的十诫不仅是创造性生活的10个伟大工具，也是灵活的宗教生活的伟大路线图，也是对抗各种原教旨主义的良药。
{"title":"CHAPTER 8 Bob Dylan’s Ten Commandments – a Method for Personal Transformation","authors":"Petter Fiskum Myhr","doi":"10.23865/noasp.74.ch8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.74.ch8","url":null,"abstract":"Over the years, Bob Dylan has been able to go through many changes as an artist and as a person – always flexible, always in touch with his life, his aging, always true to himself, but not to his audience. While so many of us seem to stick to our old ways, Dylan has had this rare ability to keep on moving on, like a rolling stone. How has this been possible? In this chapter I present what I call Bob Dylan’s method for personal transformation. I have found ten commandments, or ten rules, that Dylan seems to be following. To show the importance of the commandments I assess Dylan’s method for personal transformation in relation to Philip Salim Francis’s research among 82 Evangelicals who underwent a sea-change of religious identity through the intervention of arts, published in the book When Art Disrupts Religion. Bob Dylan’s ten commandments are not only 10 great tools for a creative life, they are also a great roadmap for a flexible religious life and good medicine against all sorts of fundamentalism.","PeriodicalId":370963,"journal":{"name":"A God of Time and Space","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117065408","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The songs of Bob Dylan are often used in the worship services of Protestant, and especially Lutheran, churches in Scandinavia. Since the mid-1990s more than 100 so-called Dylan masses have been celebrated in Norway alone. This can be explained partly by the fact that Dylan has been recognized as a major artist in all sections of society, and partly by the fact that the national Lutheran churches have accepted popular music as a natural part of their worship. In this article, I look more closely at the reasons behind the use of Bob Dylan’s music in worship in Scandinavia and examine the discussion around this that has been going on within church communities. My empirical basis consists of interviews with ten ministers and church musicians. The material shows that different types of argumentation are used with regard to the use of Dylan’s music in the church, and that this is related to the respondent’s approach to popular culture in general and the way in which they regard the worship service.
{"title":"CHAPTER 4 When the Wind is the Answer: The Use of Bob Dylan Songs in Worship Services in Protestant Churches","authors":"P. K. Botvar","doi":"10.23865/noasp.74.ch4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.74.ch4","url":null,"abstract":"The songs of Bob Dylan are often used in the worship services of Protestant, and especially Lutheran, churches in Scandinavia. Since the mid-1990s more than 100 so-called Dylan masses have been celebrated in Norway alone. This can be explained partly by the fact that Dylan has been recognized as a major artist in all sections of society, and partly by the fact that the national Lutheran churches have accepted popular music as a natural part of their worship. In this article, I look more closely at the reasons behind the use of Bob Dylan’s music in worship in Scandinavia and examine the discussion around this that has been going on within church communities. My empirical basis consists of interviews with ten ministers and church musicians. The material shows that different types of argumentation are used with regard to the use of Dylan’s music in the church, and that this is related to the respondent’s approach to popular culture in general and the way in which they regard the worship service.","PeriodicalId":370963,"journal":{"name":"A God of Time and Space","volume":"123 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116514371","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This contribution analyzes Bob Dylan’s evangelic conversion in light of other conversions throughout his oeuvre, emphasizing the theological moment of the event of conversion as such. Two important aspects of conversion inaugurate Dylan’s born-again output: on the one hand, the isolation and purification of the figure of Christ as the all-pervading “object” of his quest; on the other, the “re-coding” of a series of figures and motifs from his earlier work, most of them derived, of course, from the proverbial American songbook. Before and after Dylan’s evangelical ruse, the legacy of 18th Century American Transcendentalism as well as Christ as an emblem of the rebel and/or artist constitute two relatively stable religious aspects of his art.
{"title":"CHAPTER 6 Bob Dylan’s Conversions: The “Gospel Years” as Symptom and Transition","authors":"Gisle Selnes","doi":"10.23865/noasp.74.ch6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.74.ch6","url":null,"abstract":"This contribution analyzes Bob Dylan’s evangelic conversion in light of other conversions throughout his oeuvre, emphasizing the theological moment of the event of conversion as such. Two important aspects of conversion inaugurate Dylan’s born-again output: on the one hand, the isolation and purification of the figure of Christ as the all-pervading “object” of his quest; on the other, the “re-coding” of a series of figures and motifs from his earlier work, most of them derived, of course, from the proverbial American songbook. Before and after Dylan’s evangelical ruse, the legacy of 18th Century American Transcendentalism as well as Christ as an emblem of the rebel and/or artist constitute two relatively stable religious aspects of his art.","PeriodicalId":370963,"journal":{"name":"A God of Time and Space","volume":"29 6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126076791","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
“Tempest” is one of the longest songs Dylan has written. His point of departure is the Titanic disaster, but it soon becomes obvious that Titanic is a meta-phor, pointing to something much bigger than the 1912 disaster. “Tempest” is a rich song in the sense that it contains references to many different sources. My aim is to try to uncover some of these, in order to detect how this vast collage is used to create a new story that transcends the original one. It comes as no great surprise that apocalyptic themes literally come to the surface in the song. In what ways does Dylan express his apocalyptic imagination in “Tempest”, and how is this related to other songs in the Tempest album?
{"title":"CHAPTER 2 “The Titanic sails at dawn”: Bob Dylan, “Tempest”, and the Apocalyptic Imagination","authors":"Robert W. Kvalvaag","doi":"10.23865/noasp.74.ch2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.74.ch2","url":null,"abstract":"“Tempest” is one of the longest songs Dylan has written. His point of departure is the Titanic disaster, but it soon becomes obvious that Titanic is a meta-phor, pointing to something much bigger than the 1912 disaster. “Tempest” is a rich song in the sense that it contains references to many different sources. My aim is to try to uncover some of these, in order to detect how this vast collage is used to create a new story that transcends the original one. It comes as no great surprise that apocalyptic themes literally come to the surface in the song. In what ways does Dylan express his apocalyptic imagination in “Tempest”, and how is this related to other songs in the Tempest album?","PeriodicalId":370963,"journal":{"name":"A God of Time and Space","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116860945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bob Dylan’s conversion to Christianity was a long time coming. So was his protest against protest, his hostility to politics. In this essay Dylan’s gospel songs are appreciated as the pivot of his songwriting, augmenting the multi-layered sense and multi-directed meaning in the invocatory design of his songs, a pattern which of course is also to be found both earlier and later in his oeuvre.
{"title":"CHAPTER 3 Against Liberals: Multi-layered and Multi-directed Invocation in Dylan’s Christian Songs","authors":"E. Aadland","doi":"10.23865/noasp.74.ch3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.74.ch3","url":null,"abstract":"Bob Dylan’s conversion to Christianity was a long time coming. So was his protest against protest, his hostility to politics. In this essay Dylan’s gospel songs are appreciated as the pivot of his songwriting, augmenting the multi-layered sense and multi-directed meaning in the invocatory design of his songs, a pattern which of course is also to be found both earlier and later in his oeuvre.","PeriodicalId":370963,"journal":{"name":"A God of Time and Space","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129246030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
“Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)” is a central song on Street-Legal, the album Bob Dylan released in 1978, a short time before his Christian conversion experience and the so-called Christian album trilogy of 1979–1981. Within the setting of a journey through a half-real, half-mythical landscape, the song describes an encounter between an I-figure, the singer, and his travel companion, a mysterious, silent “señor”, with the singer going through a process of growing frustration leading to a state of existential despair. The article gives a close, narrative reading of the lyrics and analyzes the song within the contexts of the album, of the development of Dylan’s religious language, of his performances of the song from 1978 to 2011, and of his own comments on it. The main conclusion is that “Señor” can be read in different ways, but that religion, and Christianity in particular, plays an important and integral part in the various readings. The song reflects Dylan’s artistic and personal situation at the time, also by foreshadowing his conversion experience, but at the same time belongs within a long trajectory of Dylan songs from the 1960s until today which deal with fundamental human themes related to history, society, social relations, religion, and life in general.
《Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)》是鲍勃·迪伦1978年发行的专辑《Street-Legal》的中心歌曲，这是在他皈依基督教的经历和1979-1981年所谓的基督教专辑三部曲之前不久。这首歌以半真实半神话的风景为背景，描述了一个I-figure，歌手和他的旅伴，一个神秘的，沉默的“señor”之间的相遇，歌手经历了一个越来越沮丧的过程，导致了一种存在的绝望状态。本文对歌词进行了细致的叙事性解读，并在专辑的背景下分析了这首歌，分析了迪伦宗教语言的发展，分析了他从1978年到2011年对这首歌的表演，以及他自己对这首歌的评论。主要结论是，“Señor”可以有不同的解读方式，但宗教，尤其是基督教，在各种解读中扮演着重要而不可或缺的角色。这首歌反映了迪伦当时的艺术和个人状况，也预示了他的皈依经历，但同时也属于迪伦从20世纪60年代到今天的漫长的歌曲轨迹，这些歌曲涉及与历史、社会、社会关系、宗教和生活有关的基本人类主题。
{"title":"CHAPTER 1 “Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)”: A Window into Bob Dylan’s Existential and Religious World","authors":"Reidar Aasgaard","doi":"10.23865/noasp.74.ch1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.74.ch1","url":null,"abstract":"“Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)” is a central song on Street-Legal, the album Bob Dylan released in 1978, a short time before his Christian conversion experience and the so-called Christian album trilogy of 1979–1981. Within the setting of a journey through a half-real, half-mythical landscape, the song describes an encounter between an I-figure, the singer, and his travel companion, a mysterious, silent “señor”, with the singer going through a process of growing frustration leading to a state of existential despair. The article gives a close, narrative reading of the lyrics and analyzes the song within the contexts of the album, of the development of Dylan’s religious language, of his performances of the song from 1978 to 2011, and of his own comments on it. The main conclusion is that “Señor” can be read in different ways, but that religion, and Christianity in particular, plays an important and integral part in the various readings. The song reflects Dylan’s artistic and personal situation at the time, also by foreshadowing his conversion experience, but at the same time belongs within a long trajectory of Dylan songs from the 1960s until today which deal with fundamental human themes related to history, society, social relations, religion, and life in general.","PeriodicalId":370963,"journal":{"name":"A God of Time and Space","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127201902","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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