A new (to me) musical instrument

Just discovered Moyun, a musician who plays well-known songs on an ancient Chinese stringed instrument. Here’s her cover of the Eagles’ “Hotel California.”

Jesus Christ Superstar

Just finished relistening to Jesus Christ Superstar, the 1970 album. Fifty years after it first came out and I first listened to it, it holds up well. Some random thoughts:

• It’s not orthodox, but it’s still moving. Jesus doesn’t rise, and before his crucifixion he shows more doubt and fear than the Gospels allow. His death is tragic but not redemptive.

• And yet, the authorial viewpoint is respectful. According to Wikipedia, producer Andrew Lloyd Webber, an agnostic, has high respect for Jesus. This attitude comes through in “Superstar,” Judas’ Iscariot’s postmortem retrospective on Jesus and his ministry (sung wonderfully by Murray Head): “Tell me, tell me, don’t get me wrong; I only want to know.”

• Superstar portrays evil better than it portrays good. The motivations of the Jewish and Roman leaders who want rid of Jesus agree with the Gospels. Their venality rings true. Victor Brox, now recently deceased, brings his thick, raspy bass voice to a masterful portrayal of the high priest Caiaphas.

• The frequent anachronisms bring the piece into the twentieth—now the twenty-first—century and don’t, or shouldn’t, trouble the listener. Occasional adjustments to the story line of the Gospels don’t detract from the narrative. For example, Pilate and not his wife dreams of Jesus; and Pilate also gives Jesus 39 lashes, a Jewish and not a Roman punishment. A soldier speaking broad Cockney identifies Jesus as “Someone Christ, King of the Jews.”

My appreciation of Superstar hasn’t changed over the years, but now I can express it better. If you’ve never seen or heard it, you should.

Christ and Culture

Richard Niebuhr’s seminal work Christ and Culture (Harper & Row, 1951) came out nearly 72 years ago, but it remains a classic. This quotation speaks to our world:

The antagonism of modern, tolerant culture to Christ is of course often disguised because it does not call its religious practices religious, reserving that term for certain specified rites connected with officially recognized sacred institutions; and also because it regards what it calls religion as one of the many interests which can be placed alonside economics, art, science, politics, and techniques. Hence the objection it voices to Christian monotheism appears in such injunctions only as that religion should be kept out of politics and business, or that Christian faith must learn to get along with other religions. What is often meant is that not only the claims of religious groups but all consideration of the claims of Christ and God should be banished from the spheres where other gods, called values, reign (pp. 8-9, emphasis added).

Edited to add: Christ and Culture is available to read online for free at archive.org.

Trevin Wax has posted a helpful summary of the book at thegospelcoalition.org.

A recovered classic

LATER: The novel is available for free from Project Gutenberg.

Verse

A helpful reminder

“I’ve been reading through scripture with a central fact in mind—every single syllable of the New Testament was written during a time of far worse disease, oppression, and danger than we endure today. The people of God suffered under imperial rule but lived under the firm belief that a messiah would take back the land from a godless empire. “

–David French (emphasis added)

A beautiful setting of Psalm 46

By Shane & Shane. Hat tip David French.

Boots of Spanish Leather

Lately, I keep running across songs that came out when I was young, but I never noticed them until now. I like this cover by Mandolin Orange better than the Dylan original.

The Psalms sung right

Here’s Psalm 23 sung in Hebrew by Yamma Ensemble, a contemporary Jewish group. Don’t miss the uptempo second half.

Macbeth (2018)

Just watched an innovative British version of ”the Scottish play” on Amazon Prime. Though faithful to the original in language and story, the movie shows little interest in realism. The set has multiple levels, all enclosed in a transparent globe. Although Macbeth and Banquo have heavy Scots accents, other characters do not. (Two characters wear modern glasses.) Other changes abound. Chunks of dialog are edited out or moved around. Some of the memorable speeches appear in voiceover. The three witches have children. We never see Banquo’s ghost, but we watch Macbeth raving about him from the ghost’s perspective. One explicit sex scene appears, and little explicit violence.

Yet even with all these innovations, the play works. Akiya Henry’s Lady Macbeth shows the character’s greed, lust, and love for her husband. Macduff’s grief over his slaughtered family rings true. The classical score supports the action. The film does not disappoint.