Source: Religion News Service
(RNS) For the first time since the last century, this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature went to an American writer — singer, songwriter, author Bob Dylan.
At 75, Dylan is still filling concert halls and arenas and rocking late into the night. He’s been quoted in Supreme Court decisions, and St. John Paul II once built an entire homily on Dylan’s classic song “Blowin’ in the Wind.” The first volume of his memoirs, “Chronicles, Volume One,” was critically as well as popularly acclaimed when it appeared in 2004.
Scholars of Dylan — and they are legion, with many offering entire courses on the singer’s record catalog — have long highlighted the religious imagery of his work. From Old Testament references in “All Along the Watchtower” (1967) and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” (1976) to the New Testament basis of “Gotta Serve Somebody” (1979) and the spiritual yearning of “Thunder on the Mountain” (2006), Dylan’s lyrics and music have long reflected his own restless, seeking soul.
Here are a few of the religious wanderings and explorations of the new Nobel Laureate in Literature, Bob Dylan:
Dylan’s given name is Robert Allen Zimmerman.
He was raised in a Jewish family in Minnesota and underwent a bar mitzvah ceremony at age 13. He married Sara Noznisky Lownds, who is also Jewish, and raised five children in the religion.
He was baptized a Christian.
In the late 1970s, Dylan and his wife divorced. In the depression that followed, he was influenced by several of his backup singers, who were Christians, and was ultimately baptized in the Pacific Ocean.
“Jesus put his hand on me, it was a physical thing,” Dylan said in 1980. Later, he said, “I believe every knee shall bow one day,” and many of his fellow artists report he tried to convert them during this time.
While many described Dylan as “born-again” during this period, Dylan repudiated that term.
“I’ve never said I’m born again. That’s just a media term. I don’t think I’ve been an agnostic. I’ve always thought there’s a superior power, that this is not the real world and that there’s a world to come.”
Whatever label Dylan preferred, this period resulted in two albums built around Christian imagery — “Slow Train Coming” (1979) and “Saved” (1980), while 1981’s “Shot of Love” was a mix of Christian and secular songs.
Categories: Literature, Nobel Prize, The Muslim Times
Brilliant writer/singer, could not fault him, but he is a jew, bottom of the evolution ladder, does not want, are unwanted. Trying to grab back Christianity which they threw away, tried to put the blame on rhe Romans and Mohammed’s followers (thru the Qur’an). JC – “he’s got the whole world in his hand” for the jews, but I am unto it.
Well…well well…another one is called to da path dat is thin as a hair and Sharp As a Razor..THE MOST HIGH MOST GRACIOUS MOST MERCIFUL SUPREME IN GLORY…Calls who HE wants to da path…and if one don’t know now they will later that THERE IS NO GOD BUT ALLAH AND PROPHET MUHAMMAD IS THE LAST MESSAGER OF GOD