Singers, artists, journalists and others will share insights into popular music and religious identity during a semester-long lecture series at ²¤ÂÜÊÓƵ Divinity School.
The "Like a Prayer" series, part of the Religion and the Arts and Contemporary Culture Program financed by a grant from the , will meet on select Tuesdays and Thursdays in the Art Room on the ground floor of . The talks were organized by a divinity school class, "Popular Music and Religious Identity."
All the lectures are free and open to the public and begin at 7 p.m. at the divinity school at 411 21st Ave. S. Selected sessions will be posted as podcasts at .
"For students who are going into the ministry, it matters whether their parishioners listen to Kenny Chesney or rap music while driving to church," said , the class instructor and Charles G. Finney Professor of Homiletics. "We’re going to take a broad look at how the music all around us contains the urge for transcendence and human transformation."
The schedule:
Tuesday, Sept. 16: Dave Perkins, "Hell Yeah! Pairing Southern Religion and Punk/Postmodern Aesthetics in the Construction of Southern Gothic Music"
Thursday, Sept. 18: Sherry Cothran, "From Songs to Sermons: Listening to the Stories of Women of the Hebrew Bible"
Tuesday, Sept. 23: John Styll, "The World of Contemporary Christian Music: An Insider’s View"
Tuesday, Oct. 7: Juan M. Floyd-Thomas, "’It’s Like God is Testing Me: Approaches for ²¤ÂÜÊÓƵing Religion and Hip-hop"
Tuesday, Oct. 14: Bill Friskics-Warren, "Something Like Sanctified: Spirituality in Contemporary Pop Music"
Thursday, Oct. 23: Jars of Clay members Steve Mason and Charlie Reid, with Julie Lee and Brian Ritchey, "Everything is Broken"
Tuesday, Nov. 4: Gerald Liu, "Kampala Flow: Spittin’ and Spirituality in Ugandan Rap?"
Thursday, Nov. 13: Bobby Clark (The Williams and Clark Expedition), "O Heaven Where Art Thou: The Redemptive Power of Bluegrass"
Thursday, Dec. 4: Amy Stroup, Brooke Waggoner and Charlie Peacock, "Restless Souls: Searching for Authenticity in Nashville’s Music Scene"
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu