More about truth
than a struggle for Dylan
July 5, 2003
By Michael Miller
Peoria Journal Star
Christians and Jews fruitfully co-exist, but there's still one piece of culture some in each camp are reluctant to surrender: Bob Dylan.
Reform Judaism magazine's summer 2003 issue features the final installment of a series on Jewish songwriters. The article by Paul Zollo leads off with Dylan, retracing his oft-told rise to fame from Hibbing, Minn., to New York City and then going on to his conversion to Christianity.
It's what has happened after that "gospel period" circa 1980 that has been controversial over the years. Did Dylan leave the fundamentalist Christian faith he espoused on "Slow Train Coming," "Saved" and "Shot of Love" and in concerts during that period?
After those albums, the seminal singer-songwriter departed from explicitly Christian lyrics. He also showed up at a son's bar mitzvah celebration in Jerusalem and appeared a few times on Lubavitch Chabad telethons that raised money for the Jewish Hasidic group.
The Zollo piece in Reform Judaism correctly points out that Dylan's music has traditionally had biblical references - 61 on 1968's "John Wesley Harding" alone - but it ignores biblical references and specifically New Testament allusions in Dylan's music since his alleged "reversion" to Judaism.
Actually, Zollo reveals an ignorance of Dylan's music in what is a fairly shallow analysis. He misplaces "Every Grain of Sand" on the "Saved" album - it was on "Shot of Love," the album after "Saved" - and claimed it "led some Dylan watchers to speculate that he was returning to the Jewish fold." That would be surprising since a song called "Property of Jesus" was also on "Shot of Love."
But Zollo correctly points out that Dylan's song writing is faithful to a long line of Jewish poets. Where he and many others stumble is in their insistence that Dylan's conversion to Christianity was an either-or proposition, and that if he showed up at Yom Kippur services or attended his son's bar mitzvah, that meant he had abandoned Christianity.
"Restless Pilgrim: The Spiritual Journey of Bob Dylan," a 2002 book by Scott M. Marshall with Marcia Ford, goes much deeper. The thoroughly documented book reveals a Dylan who continues to perform key songs from his "Christian period," songs like "Gotta Serve Somebody," "Solid Rock" and "In the Garden," as well as old-time gospel tunes like "Rock of Ages." There also have been hundreds of biblical references - both New and Old Testaments - in the songs on his "post-Christian" albums.
Though written from an admittedly Christian perspective, "Restless Pilgrim" honestly makes the case that Dylan not only hasn't abandoned his Christian faith, but has comfortably retained his Judaism. In fact, he appears to be more involved in Jewish causes and observance since his Christian conversion. If anything, that conversion may have awakened him to his Jewish roots.
That's something many people, Christian and Jew, are unable to imagine or accept, despite the common roots of both faiths and the fact that the foundation of Christianity, Jesus, was himself an observant Jew.
Probably the main reason that Dylan hasn't been as outspoken about his faith of late is that he quickly learned the difficult fact of Christian matinee-idol worship; born-agains love to hold up celebrity believers as trophies. Dylan, always a private and independent individual, probably got tired of that quickly.
If anything, his music over the past 20 years has increasingly tried to point people away from himself and themselves and toward God and others. It's as if he's been saying, "Don't focus on me. Worry about the state and destiny of your soul. Use my music as a vehicle if you need to."
The struggle for Bob Dylan should instead be the struggle for truth.
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Michael Miller covers religion for the Journal Star. Write to him in care of the Journal Star, 1 News Plaza, Peoria, IL 61643, call him at (309) 686-3106, or send e-mail to
mmiller@pjstar.com. Comments may be published.
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© 2003. Peoria Journal Star. Reprinted with permission.
No further reproduction by any means permitted.
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