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Book Description
One of the factors that sometimes provides art with a richer sense of texture is its ability to draw an allusion to the classic expressions of human culture, thought, and experience. The Bible is no exception and has often been received through its incorporation into works of art— the plays of Shakespeare, the paintings of Rembrandt, the sculptures of Michelangelo, the stories of Flannery O’Connor, the films of Martin Scorsese. Raising Cain, Fleeing Egypt, and Fighting Philistines considers the overwhelming influence that Old Testament imagery has had on some of the most popular musical artists of our time—from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen to OutKast.
Ideal for use in personal reflection or small group study, this book contains questions for consideration and discussion after each chapter. Also included are handy charts linking the considered songs to their biblical references, creating an ease-of-use for teaching and further study.
Book Reviews
This volume the young will say “cool”! We, who are the golden years, find it [Raising Cain] as an effective method of studying the scriptures while remembering when we too were cool.
— Will Campbell
Mark McEntire and Joel Emerson have demonstrated that the pop culture has already introduced Biblical themes, characters and stories to the Biblically-uninformed public, and that that familiarity, whether always Biblically accurate or not, can serve as a legitimate place to start when we attempt to introduce people to the scriptures. Many pastors, teachers, and lay leaders of all kinds are steeped in exegetical research and full of Biblical insight, but struggle to find that “point of contact” with the every-day experience that will sufficiently intrigue the people they hope to reach. This highly recommendable book is chock-full of those points of contact for our modern world.
— Kyle Matthews
Motivated by an attempt to catalogue OT references in contemporary lyrics, the authors of this text highlight the ways in which modern songwriters have appropriated scriptural texts to relay archetypal experiences in popular music. Themes include family, survival, pain, captivity, heroes and villains, wisdom, and the prophetic voice.
from Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, Art and Exegesis — October 2007