Broken Hallelujahs: Why Popular Music Matters to Those Seeking God
Brokenness, Redemption, and Popular MusicBroken Hallelujahsoffers a fresh perspective on engaging faith and culture through a wide range of popular music, including the blues, hip-hop, and rock. Christian Scharen reveals the limits of approaches to culture that draw strict boundaries between saint and sinner, church and world--approaches that can miss the creative ways God is active and at work in the world. He calls us to trust God's redeeming presence in the midst of a broken creation. Through his examination of artists such as Arcade Fire, Kanye West, Leonard Cohen, and Billie Holiday, Scharen offers a compelling theology of culture in conversation with C. S. Lewis that can look suffering and brokenness in the face because it knows of a love deeper than hate, a hope stronger than despair."The realm of popular music, like much in pop culture, is often written off as bleak and godless. Scharen pleads that this is the result of a 'constricted imagination,' and rightly so. This very readable book will provoke discussions that are much needed in the church and beyond."--Jeremy Begbie, Duke University"Christian Scharen's theological meditation on popular music shows why Christians and popular artists have serious spiritual concerns in common. He argues that pop musicians are already literate about the creative character of surrender in their lives and work, and that Christian theology too finds its center in graceful surrender to God with and for others. Fans of music and students of spirituality will and should be drawn in by the work of this discerning, inquisitive theological thinker and unapologetic--but not uncritical--music fan."--Tom Beaudoin, Fordham University