Last year, my friend and colleague Alice Camille and I spent an evening on Zoom geeking out on one of our favorite topics: The Spirituality of Star Trek (seriously!). People seemed to enjoy our exploration of the spirituality of the future enough that they asked for an encore. We decided another fun (and unusual, perhaps) place to look for God is in the wild and crazy world of popular music — whether that means Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Beyoncé, or Taylor Swift…
Click here to learn more, or to register; this event takes place on Thursday May 18, 2023 at 7:30 PM Eastern USA time.
(Okay, a disclaimer: Alice and I probably know a lot more about the Beatles than about Beyoncé — but we want everyone to join in on the fun, no matter what your “favorite decade” is, music-wise! There will be plenty of time for conversation, so you’ll have a chance to talk up your favorite spiritually meaningful musician or song!)
This event is sponsored by our dear friends at the Rock Hill Oratory in South Carolina, but it’s on Zoom so everyone is welcome! It’s by donation, with a suggested amount of only $25. Here’s the description from the Rock Hill Oratory’s website:
Are you up for theological musings from Elvis to Elton? Not all theology comes out of a seminary! Many musicians of the past 50 years have brought spirituality into their secular pop songs, while others have songs that are blunt in their rejection of religious faith. Why is there such a bond (positive or negative) between popular music and the spiritual quest? Can pop songs help us to draw closer to God? Or is rock and roll truly “the devil’s music”?
If you attended Alice and Carl’s program last year on Star Trek as a Metaphor of Hope, you know these two can be geekily entertaining, optimistically mystical, but also not above coming up with a real groaner of a pun now and then. So, join Scripture commentator Alice Camille and modern mystic Carl McColman as they dig deep into modern conceptions of the Holy and explore contemporary music as a bridge to the timeless search for God.
So dust off those old 45s (or get out that old iPod), and let’s reflect together on how some of the most surprising spiritual messages can come to us in the most unusual of ways — set to a beat you can dance to!
Click here to learn more, or to register; this event takes place on Thursday May 18, 2023 at 7:30 PM Eastern USA time.
