sinead o connor theology

i have always liked sinead o connor. she never takes a preditable path. her voice blends a beauty, a frailty and has a passionate anger that rails against injustice that can only come from someone who has suffered. i remember seeing her at glastonbury several years ago and when she sang famine feeling like i was listening to a prophet.

she has suffered abuse at the hands of religion and famously ripped up a picture of the pope on stage and has vented her anger in public at her abusers. but she has also sought refuge in the solace of spiritual traditions and the mercy, grace and healing that come from finding a god of compassion, mercy, justice and kindness who is unlike those who claim to represent him. she calls god jah or U, and seems to have found inspiration and comfort with rastafari. there is a whole tradition of setting the old testament to music in reggae and sinead aligned herself with that tradition in her last album musically.

her latest album theology is just out. i bought it on impulse not having heard anything on it, intrigued by the dedication on the sleeve to a theology professor for his classes on jeremiah who suggested to sinead that she set some scriptures to music. well thank god he made that suggestion. because theology is pretty much that - a range of old testament scriptures woven tenderly into song. it's pretty, beautiful and powerful. i'm sure sinead must have read walter brueggemann in her classes? at least she fulfills the two roles of the prophet as he describes it - to evoke grief/lament about what has been lost and where we have become numb and to evoke amazement about god and the new world that is possible of healing, justice, and mercy.

the album has two CDs - one session recorded in dublin with just an acoustic guitar and the other in london with a wider range of musicians. i love the acoustic one. i don't listen to much music like this either. but this has so much soul it almost brings me to tears when i listen to it. it will be hard to beat though i kind of hope people do some remixes of some of the tracks too.

sinead seems to have stolen a bible from somewhere in desperation one christmas eve (judging by the lyrics of something beautiful) and found healing in the pages and poems of scripture. she thinks god agrees with her that it should have been free anyway... fair point! and it makes perfect sense that she has found a companion in jeremiah as he walked a path of suffereing in his own life out of which his message was hewn. there are songs that draw on psalms (33, 91, 137 and 104 i think) and songs of songs as well. as well as tender lament and love songs celebrating god's mercy she still has a few choice lines as do all the prophets for the oppressors who distort the name of god for their own ends.

i've heard religion say that you're to be feared
but i don't buy into everything i hear
and it seems to me you're hostage to those rules
that were made by religion and not by U

you can listen to a few tracks on sinead's myspace pages if you want to check it out. as well as her own songs she covers by the rivers of babylon and i don't know how to love him, as well as a curtis mayfield track.

the album opens with the lines

i wanna make
something beautiful
for U and from U
to show U
i adore U
oh U

you succeeded sinead - thanks. and may you continue to find the healing and mercy of god. [i'd love to hear what you make of the new testament and the person of jesus sometime as he carries forward the traditions and wells of spirituality you are drinking from and they 'broke his windows' for it]

heard a rumour that she was invited to greenbelt but sadly can't make it as there's something else in the diary. i hope she makes it another year.

the whole album is worship trick 7 [series 3]. virtually every track fits to be played and listened to in worship.

Technorati Tags: sinead o connor, theology

Comments

[John Santic]

Jonny, thanks for this review. I just bought the album on iTunes. It's impressive. You're right about her having so much soul.

[John Davies]

Yes, I liked it too. Songs of beauty and integrity. It's just a shame that she is so possessed by the all-too-easy 'God v Church' opposition, which reduces the potential for even richer conversations about life and faith.

[jonny]

it's not surprising given her experiences though...

[John Davies]

True, and that's why it's good to have the (mostly oppositional) psalms and prophets in the canon, to help us through the particularly raw stages of our broken journeys. The psalms and prophets are clearly helping her in her spiritual healing. So while enjoying this present collection I look forward to Sinead's future output where I hope she'll embrace more of the riches of the wisdom traditions, maybe even a gospel.. and put The God Who Has To Be Against Something behind her.

[cheryl]

i bought it this week too... i think it's absolutely wonderful - a raw and beautiful expression of faith.

[Rob]

thanks for the tip
i'm gonna go and find this album
cheers

[Richard L]

Thanks for the "heads up" on this - the opening words of the album are hauntingly beautiful and profoundly worshipful.

[Mike]

Stunning, Jonny. Thanks for the link.

[Laura]

Downloaded this last night. Thanks for the fab review and pointing us to this music.
Off to listen again now.

[Jamie]

Just Great album! By the way, here is some useful
website devoted to the
Theology album: http://sinead-oconnor-theology.info/

[sally]

wonderful album- I haven't tired of listening to it yet- though I may be driving my family crazy ( mothers revenge!!!)

[becky]

Here's an interview with Sinead that was posted on the Christianity Today website. http://www.christianitytoday.com/music/interviews/2007/sineadoconnor-0707.html

[jonny]

thanks - i like sinead's answers but the interviewer is so prejudiced and judgemental - i find it embarrassing!!!

[becky garrison]

Christianity Today hates the Door - they are also very critical of emerging church. What I learned from Sinead in that interview is how to deal with today's contemporary Pharisees (something that I really struggle with as of late).

[Laura]

Looks like it started out as an interview and then drifted into an inquisition.

Agree that Sinead answered his questions with grace and dignity. Good for her!