John Prine and the Gospel: The Questions of Life to Which Faith Is the Answer

By H. Newton Malony

The book would include discussion of lyrics from a selection of Prine’s songs paired with an essay suggesting how the human dilemma posed by a given song can be addressed by the promises of the Christian gospel. Using the formula of the late theologian, Paul Tillich, that “life poses the questions to which faith is the answer,” the chapters accompanying the lyrics will sensitively propose a way of living through the pathos of life with the courage of faith.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781796083057

H. Newton Malony

H. Newton Malony is a Senior Professor in the School of Psychology of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He has authored and edited over thirty volumes on the integration of theology and psychology--most recently The Amazing John Wesley: An Unusual Look at an Uncommon Life and Toward a Christian Clinical Psychology: The Contributions of H. Newton Malony.

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Copyright © 2020 by H. Newton Malony.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-7960-8306-4

                eBook            978-1-7960-8305-7

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Rev. date: 01/16/2020

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CONTENTS

Prologue

John Prine

The Gospel

Applying the Gospel to Prine’s lyrics

Gospel Enhanced

Prologue

Of all the folk singers in America, no one is better known than John Prine. His lyrics have be seen acclaimed by many as not only memorable melodies but profound reflections on the experience of living. The music of few, if any, contemporary entertainers reflects better insight into the stress and strain of daily existence than John Prine. As he states in Angel from Montgomery, Just give me one thing that I can hold on, to believe in this living is a hard way to go.

While, in general, Prine’s words are more comments than solutions to human pathos, they do, at times, offer premonitions of consolation and redemption. Who can miss the implications of such lyrics as are imbedded in such songs as Fish and Whistle, People Puttin People Down, Spanish Pipedream, and Your Flag Decal won’t Get You into Heaven Anymore? This volume would draw out those implications plus develop the intuitions inherent in many other Prine compositions.

The book would include discussion of lyrics from a selection of Prine’s songs paired with an essay suggesting how the human dilemma posed by a given song can be addressed by the promises of the Christian gospel. Using the formula of the late theologian, Paul Tillich, that life poses the questions to which faith is the answer, the chapters accompanying the lyrics will sensitively propose a way of living through the pathos of life with the courage