In "Getting the Blues," Stephen Nichols shows how blues music
offers powerful insight into the biblical narrative and the life of
Jesus. Weaving Bible stories together with intriguing details of
the lives of blues musicians, he leads readers in a vivid
exploration of how blues music teaches about sin, suffering,
alienation, and worship. Nichols unpacks the Psalms, portions of
the prophets, and Paul's writings in this unique way, revealing new
facets of Scripture.
"Getting the Blues" will resonate with all readers interested in
Christianity and culture. In the end they will emerge with a
greater understanding of the value of "theology in a minor key"--a
theology that embraces suffering as well as joy.
EXCERPT
This book attempts a theology in a minor key, a theology that
lingers, however uncomfortably, over Good Friday. It takes its cue
from the blues, harmonizing narratives of Scripture with narratives
of the Mississippi Delta, the land of cotton fields and Cyprus
swamps and the moaning slide guitar. This is not a book by a
musician, however, but by a theologian. And so I offer a
theological interpretation of the blues. Cambridge theologian
Jeremy Begbie has argued for music's intrinsic ability to teach
theology. As an improvisation on Begbie's thesis, I take the blues
to be intrinsically suited to teach a particular theology, a
theology in a minor key. This is not to suggest that a theology in
a minor key, or the blues for that matter, utterly sounds out
despair like the torrents of a spinning hurricane. A theology in a
minor key is no mere existential scream. In fact, a theology in a
minor key sounds a rather hopeful melody. Good Friday yearns for
Easter, and eventually Easter comes. Blues singers, even when
groaning of the worst of times, know to cry out for mercy because
they know that, despite appearances, Sunday's coming. . . . The
blues, like the writings of Flannery O'Connor, need not mention him
Christ] in every line, or in every song, but he haunts the music
just the same. At the end of the day, he serves as the resolution
to the conflict churning throughout the blues, the conflict that
keeps the music surging like the floodwaters of the Mississippi
River.
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