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Progressive Rock, Religion, and Theology examines progressive rock music's engagement with theology and religion, which spans an array of artists and songs from its early days to the present. Co-written by a musician and a professor of religious studies, this book looks closely not only at lyrics but at the music itself and how the two together serve to foster the exploration of religious and spiritual themes from a wide array of angles. Each chapter covers a key song by ELP, Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Kansas, Rush, and Neal Morse as well as tracing the themes from those songs into other works by the same artist and the music of others. Readers will get to know music that is familiar to them through an academic lens, and will discover that its engagement with theological ideas, if not typically informed by study of academic theologians, is nonetheless at times both intellectually rigorous and profoundly insightful.
List of contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: ELP's Tarkus: Religion and Politics in a Post-Apocalyptic Landscape
Chapter 2: Yes: Prophets of a Spiritual and Musical New Age
Chapter 3: Genesis' Supper's Ready: Messiahs and Metamorphoses
Chapter 4: Jethro Tull's Songs about God: A Prog-phetic Condemnation of Idolatry
Chapter 5: Kerry Livgren's Kansas: From Syncretism to Monotheism and Complexity to Simplicity
Chapter 6: Rush's Freewill: Beyond Election to Choice as a Theological Anthem
Chapter 7: Neal Morse's Similitude of a Dream: A Recasting of Pilgrim's Progress
Conclusion
About the author
Frank Felice is associate professor of composition, theory and electronic music in the School of Music, Jordan College of Arts at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana.
James F. McGrath is the Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University.
Summary
Co-written by a musician and a professor of religion, this book studies progressive rock music’s profound engagement with religious themes. It looks closely not only at lyrics but at the music itself, which spans an array of artists and songs from its early days to the present.
