Progressive Rock, Religion, and Theology

Author: Frank Felice and James F. McGrath Series: Theology, Religion, and Pop Culture

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.

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Summary

Description

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.

Critic Reviews

Artful academics meet art rock. Much like the music they analyze, Frank Felice and James F. McGrath’s scholarship is virtuosic, complex, and inventive. And also like the artists considered, their multidisciplinary approach, with its attention to music theory, poetics, and theology all at once, blurs genre boundaries. Deserves to be read with 2112––or equivalent, as tastes dictate––playing in the background.

-- Michael Gilmour, Providence University College (Manitoba)

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.