U2

Well tonight I feel like I have been to a U2 Concert. I really had never listened and understood some of the lyrics of U2 until tonight. The discussion and watching several music videos was interesting and gave me an appreciation for deep lyrics. I am not sure if I totally understand, but I enjoyed digging into culture and theology.

DTS professor will focus on U2's music, Theology (Interview from www.thevillagechurch.net)
If Dr. Glenn Kreider breaks out in praising God in the middle of one of the U2 songs that he'll be speaking about, you need to understand that he's only seen his favorite band live once, and the experience ranked pretty high for the professor of Theological Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary.
"It was a life-changing experience for me," said Dr. Kreider of the concert. "It was one of the top five experiences in my lifetime. To be in the midst of a group of people who were appreciating the music and to join in and sing the way we were singing, to be singing words that speak of caring for people, of respecting one another, of love. That's the kind of worship experience I would love to have regularly."
Dr. Kreider will be leading a discussion of "The Music and Theology of U2" at The Village's Culture and Theology program at the Highland Village Campus on Friday, Oct. 17, from 7 to 9 p.m.
"And then," he said of the concert, "they ended with the song 'Yahweh.' It was unbelievable."
Dr. Kreider's fascination with the Irish band dates back a few years when he found himself detached from the culture of his teenage daughter. "She was in high school," he said, "and I discovered I didn't understand her world and the culture to a great extent."
Thus began his journey of reconnecting with culture, and in that journey, Dr. Kreider found something very interesting. "My position, now that I have a more robust understanding of culture, is that we don't understand and study culture to understand the world. We study culture to better understand God. If God is revealed in trees and most Christians affirm Romans 1 that teaches that creation reveals God, then we study culture to better understand the Creator.
"In U2, we're talking about people who are Christians who are engaging today's culture in a Christian way," he said. "They're really kind of easy. I try to see how God is revealed in Coldplay and other artists who are not trying to reveal God intentionally in their music."
Dr. Kreider finds that many Christians disconnect from culture much like he had. "What happens is that as we spend more and more time with other Christians, we recognize more of the perversity of the world around us, and we try and establish little worlds of safety. And when we do engage with those around us, we engage with people with an agenda. The agenda is not to know them or understand them but the agenda is to get to them to the gospel."
U2 has long been a topic of debate among Christians. Dr. Kreider sees a few reasons for those discussions. "Conservative evangelicals, in particular," he said, "are not connected to the culture and believe we should stay away from the world as much as possible so that we won't be corrupted by it. The second issue with the band is that they are not Americans and as several of my Irish students have told me, music functions differently in Irish Christianity than in America. American Christian music answers questions. Irish Christian music raises questions.
"They don't have the social obligations and their mores are different. The American Christian who smokes a cigarette is somehow really worldly. The language is different. F-bombs mean something different; at least that's what the students tell me. And, I think there's a view of the gospel that's radically different for people who grow up in the midst of religious conflict and suffering and persecution as opposed to growing up in prosperity."
To prepare for the Oct. 17 program, Dr. Kreider suggests listening to as many U2 songs as possible, but there's one song, "Where the Streets Have No Name," that you can count on hearing that evening. "If I had to pick one, I'd say that most days, that's my favorite song," he said. The song's lyrics speak of a day when Christ restores all things and life won't hurt anymore.