Sightings Articles
Symphonic Politics, Sibelius, and the Immanent Messiah
Our country cannot afford to wait for a miracle. The music of Jean Sibelius teaches us what the alternatives might look like.
January 11, 2021
A Professor of Religion in a Time of Pop Power
An academic reflects on her analysis of a boy band, their fans' reactions to it, and the hazards of professional expertise
November 9, 2020
Springsteen’s Promised Land (It’s Not What You Think)
Bruce Springsteen, a self-professed “lapsed” Roman Catholic whose spirituality draws heavily upon his upbringing, has crafted a career-long message: we, as individuals and as a nation, can transcend trauma. Netflix gave us an enormous gift recent...
March 28, 2019
Sing, Choirs of... Atheists?
Since Sightings sights theisms, it must also pay attention to alternatives to them in our pluralistic culture. These include non-, a-, anti-, counter-, para-, et cetera. One thing we’ve never written about is “sung” atheism. That changes today, becau...
June 4, 2018
“It Is Music That Lifts Us Up from the Earth at the Very Moment of Death”: On the Transcendence of the Popular
Editor's Note: This essay is the final installment in our six-part series on religion and popular music. The previous issues were "The Broken Grace of Leonard Cohen" by Paul DeCamp (April 13); "Being Hip-Hop, Being Job, and Being" by Julian DeShazier...
September 14, 2017
Finding Evidence: Bruce Springsteen's Procession from Religion to Faith
Editor's Note: This is the fifth issue in our continuing series of essays on religion and popular music. For the previous installments, see "The Broken Grace of Leonard Cohen" by Paul DeCamp; "Being Hip-Hop, Being Job, and Being" by Julian "J.Kwest" ...
July 20, 2017
Rev. Dr. William Barber and the Sound of Transcendence
In his address to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, then president of the North Carolina Conference of the NAACP and leader of the Moral Mondays Movement, proclaimed, “like our forefathers and foremothers, we...
June 15, 2017
“No One Was Saved”: The Beatles and Organized Religion
Editor's Note: It was 50 years ago today... the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, one of their most important and influential albums. This issue of Sightings—the third part in our continuing series on religion and popular music—...
June 1, 2017
Being Hip-Hop, Being Job, and Being
Editor's Note: Today's issue is the second in a series of Sightings (perhaps we should say "Hearings," or "Listenings") on the manifold ways in which popular music intersects with religion. Be sure to check out the first installment, Paul DeCamp's "T...