<img src="http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee136/anuransol/bono-sml.jpg" alt="" width="101" height="75" />
<strong>By Laurie Britt-Smith</strong>
<strong>August 26, 2008</strong>
Note: The editorial staff of Interference is pleased to present an exclusive series of articles that examine Bono?s prophetic tendencies?lyrically, spiritually, musically, politically. In the coming weeks and days before the release of the band?s twelfth studio album, we will post excerpts from the May 2008 dissertation in Composition and Rhetoric of Dr. Laurie Britt-Smith, graduate of St. Louis University.
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Recently hired to direct the Writing Program at the University of Detroit, Smith examines Bono?s unique theological sensibilities alongside his boundary-crossing social justice activism. Of interest to U2 fans, scholars, and activist Christians of all political persuasions, this writing continues the to give academic quality to the amazing quantity of serious prose devoted to studying the greatest rock band of the late 20th century. To set the stage, this first installment presents an excerpt from Smith?s larger work. In particular, we offer the section where she defines a ?prophet? based on the work of Walter Brueggemann. ?Ed.
Walter Brueggemann?s text, The Prophetic Imagination, provides the framework for examining the actual rhetoric of what he identifies as a prophet. The prophet in this sense is not one who foretells the future, but one who is concerned with provoking ?elemental changes in human society? based on his/her understanding of the ?strange incongruence between public conviction and personal yearning? and ?the distinctive power of language.? In short, (s)he provides a new word, or rhetoric, to replace what has been the language of power. Brueggemann states, ?The evocation of an alternative reality consists at least in part in the battle for language and the legitimization of a new rhetoric.?
<img src="http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee136/anuransol/Bono_p1.jpg" alt="" width="432" height="555" />
Brueggemann discusses the characteristic of the prophet as being one who can present an ?alternative consciousness? by criticizing the dominant culture ? which is a liberal tendency ? while also energizing the community to move toward a promise of a better time and situation ? which is a conservative idea that is part of the fabric of American society. The conservative faction withstands criticism of the status quo without the real promise or hope of some sort of improvement over the current situation being offered by the new vision; the liberal faction resists talk of promises and hope in the new vision being offered without criticism of what is occurring in the status quo. The prophet?s rhetoric captures the motives of both sides and provides a way for them to work together.
Using the Mosaic covenant tradition found in the book of Exodus as a model, he also establishes criteria for prophetic rhetoric based on justice and compassion. The rhetoric is political and social, as well as spiritual in nature. This rhetorical tradition is one that must present an alternative to the ?theology of God?s enslavement? ? the promotion of the belief that a community?s current situation is the result of God?s disfavor of the oppressed and a sign of favor for those in power, and a ?sociology of human enslavement.? Moving beyond social theory and righteous indignation, prophetic rhetoric begins with discerning an alternative vision of Yahweh based in justice and compassion. It is the presentation of that alternative vision of ?God?s freedom? that energizes the community.
<strong>By Laurie Britt-Smith</strong>
<strong>August 26, 2008</strong>
Note: The editorial staff of Interference is pleased to present an exclusive series of articles that examine Bono?s prophetic tendencies?lyrically, spiritually, musically, politically. In the coming weeks and days before the release of the band?s twelfth studio album, we will post excerpts from the May 2008 dissertation in Composition and Rhetoric of Dr. Laurie Britt-Smith, graduate of St. Louis University.
<!--more-->
Recently hired to direct the Writing Program at the University of Detroit, Smith examines Bono?s unique theological sensibilities alongside his boundary-crossing social justice activism. Of interest to U2 fans, scholars, and activist Christians of all political persuasions, this writing continues the to give academic quality to the amazing quantity of serious prose devoted to studying the greatest rock band of the late 20th century. To set the stage, this first installment presents an excerpt from Smith?s larger work. In particular, we offer the section where she defines a ?prophet? based on the work of Walter Brueggemann. ?Ed.
Walter Brueggemann?s text, The Prophetic Imagination, provides the framework for examining the actual rhetoric of what he identifies as a prophet. The prophet in this sense is not one who foretells the future, but one who is concerned with provoking ?elemental changes in human society? based on his/her understanding of the ?strange incongruence between public conviction and personal yearning? and ?the distinctive power of language.? In short, (s)he provides a new word, or rhetoric, to replace what has been the language of power. Brueggemann states, ?The evocation of an alternative reality consists at least in part in the battle for language and the legitimization of a new rhetoric.?
<img src="http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee136/anuransol/Bono_p1.jpg" alt="" width="432" height="555" />
Brueggemann discusses the characteristic of the prophet as being one who can present an ?alternative consciousness? by criticizing the dominant culture ? which is a liberal tendency ? while also energizing the community to move toward a promise of a better time and situation ? which is a conservative idea that is part of the fabric of American society. The conservative faction withstands criticism of the status quo without the real promise or hope of some sort of improvement over the current situation being offered by the new vision; the liberal faction resists talk of promises and hope in the new vision being offered without criticism of what is occurring in the status quo. The prophet?s rhetoric captures the motives of both sides and provides a way for them to work together.
Using the Mosaic covenant tradition found in the book of Exodus as a model, he also establishes criteria for prophetic rhetoric based on justice and compassion. The rhetoric is political and social, as well as spiritual in nature. This rhetorical tradition is one that must present an alternative to the ?theology of God?s enslavement? ? the promotion of the belief that a community?s current situation is the result of God?s disfavor of the oppressed and a sign of favor for those in power, and a ?sociology of human enslavement.? Moving beyond social theory and righteous indignation, prophetic rhetoric begins with discerning an alternative vision of Yahweh based in justice and compassion. It is the presentation of that alternative vision of ?God?s freedom? that energizes the community.