While walking in Amsterdam this summer, I noticed a gallery featuring a rendering of a Pieta featuring rock musicians (and former married couple, before his suicide in 1994) Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain. It is by the artist and photographer David LaChapelle, from his published collection Heaven to Hell. You can see an image of it here. There is a lot to notice in this picture, including the new stigmata which are the holes in Cobain’s right arm, presumably from drug use, as well as the presence of their child, Frances Bean. Both seem to be innovations in the Pieta motif. The picture seems a little hyperreal to me. It evokes my curiosity, but not because of its sheer beauty, but because I listened, watch, and felt my way through that music and that era. I also remember the many debates about his death (its meaning and its causes), and I wonder what LaChapelle is telling us about religion in our culture. At the least, the picture seems to suggest that even ironic religion is a way of holding influential cultural figures. Maybe because we not only want to know why our artists suffer, but why we care about that suffering?

Tommy Beaudoin, in flight between San Francisco and New York City

The following is part one of a three-part guest entry from Eddie Sloane. Eddie received his Master’s Degree in Theology from Xavier University, Cincinnati, in 2010. After a year as a Jesuit novice he returned to studying theology and is currently studying for a ThM at St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN while preparing applications for entry into a doctoral program in the fall of 2012. His research interests include contextual and political ecclesiology, Appalachian studies, and theology and cultural practice.

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A recent visit to a used record store led to a chance encounter with three unique records: Yesterday’s Gone by The Montfort Mission (Reprise, 1967?), M. Frog’s self-titled album (Bearsville, 1973), and Destination: Love (Live! At Cold Rice) by The Make-Up (Dischord, 1996). What prompted me to buy these records was not the music, and the music, as enjoyable as it is, is not the subject of discussion here. Rather, it is the explicitly theological presentation of the music in the album art. The liner notes and art work of these records demonstrates the religious self-understanding, identity, and presentation of the artists. In each case the desire to make music is, for these musician, connected to their experience of God. Though not expressly ‘religious,’ the music is informed by a theologically structured worldview. Ultimately, three very distinct records with three very divergent sounds—folk, electronic/synth-jazz/psychedelic, and punk/post-punk (and presenting three distinct theologies)—find a unity in their willingness to situate themselves within a theological space.

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