New book explores spirituality of U2

Louisville, Kentucky–U2 is arguably the most popular band in the world today, but are they a Christian band? Greg Garrett, Baylor University professor and author of We Get to Carry Each Other: The Gospel according to U2, says yes. Although many fans perceive the band as a purely secular phenomenon, Garrett contends that what they are connecting with is U2’s “honest quest for spiritual meaning in a world that pays lip service to the spiritual while chasing after the transient.” With the release of their twelfth studio album, No Line on the Horizon, Garrett believes the band continues to pursue their spiritual journey while serving the world with beautiful music.

U2’s influence has gone beyond music into issues such as AIDS activism, debt relief for developing nations, and the crisis in Darfur. Garrett, who interviewed the fledgling band on their second U.S. tour, takes us from their upbringing in Ireland to their dominance over the music scene in the early 1990s and then describes their role as spiritual ambassadors to a post-9/11 world. Throughout, we get a picture of the spirituality that flows from U2’s music and how it has shaped our lives and our world.

Greg Garrett is Professor of English at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He is a licensed lay preacher in the Episcopal Church, and Writer in Residence at the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas. Greg is one of America’s leading authorities on religion and culture. His books include The Gospel according to Hollywood, Holy Superheroes, and Stories from the Edge: A Theology of Grief. He has appeared on National Public Radio, CBS Radio, BBC Radio, and The Bob Edwards Show, and regularly speaks and leads workshops and retreats across the US and overseas. He is also a featured blogger for The Christian Century at www.theotherjesus.com.

To speak with Greg Garrett, contact Emily Kiefer at (502) 569-5811 or [email protected].

We Get to Carry Each Other: The Gospel according to U2
Greg Garrett
Westminster John Knox Press
978-0-664-23217-7 * paper * $16.95
July 2009

Westminster John Knox Press is the trade and academic publishing imprint of the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. With a publishing heritage of more than 160 years, the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation publishes over 80 new works each year, while maintaining a backlist of more than 1,700 active titles sold around the world.


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