Kicking at the Darkness: Bruce Cockburn and the Christian Imagination

by Brian J. Walsh

Overview

For forty years, singer and songwriter Bruce Cockburn has been writing beautifully evocative music. Bestselling author and respected theologian Brian Walsh has followed Cockburn's work for years and has written and spoken often on his art. In this creative theological and cultural engagement, Walsh reveals the imaginative depth and uncompromising honesty of the artist's Christian spirituality. Cockburn offers hope in the midst of doubt, struggle, failure, and anger; indeed, the sentiment of "kicking at the darkness" is at the heart of his spirituality. This book engages the rich imagery of Cockburn's lyrics as a catalyst for shaping and igniting a renewed Christian imagination.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781587432538
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/01/2011
Pages:	218
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Brian J. Walsh (PhD, McGill University) is the bestselling author or coauthor of several books, including The Transforming Vision, Truth Is Stranger Than It Used to Be, and Colossians Remixed. He is a chaplain at the University of Toronto and an adjunct professor of theology of culture at Wycliffe College in Toronto, Ontario.

Table of Contents

1. God, Friendship, and Art
2. Ecstatic Wonderings and Dangerous Kicking: Imagination and Method
3. Cockburn's Windows: Getting a Big Picture
4. Creation Dream
5. At Home in the Darkness, but Hungry for Dawn
6. Creation Dreams and Ecological Nightmares
7. Into a World of Darkness
8. Humans
9. Broken Wheel
10. Betrayal and Shame
11. What Do You Do with the Darkness?
12. Justice and Jesus
13. Waiting for a Miracle
Discography

Editorial Reviews

For more than 40 years and in 31 albums (20 of which went gold or platinum), the Canadian guitarist and singer-songwriter has probed the depths of human life in all its joy, anguish, sorrow, despair, and hope. In this affectionate set of fan’s notes on his favorite musician, Walsh (The Transforming Vision) gracefully and charmingly attempts to join Cockburn on his artistic journey todetermine whether there are resonances with our own journeys and to see if Cockburn offers wisdom that will help us as we travel our own roads. Walsh provides close readings of Cockburn’s many lyrics to demonstrate the ways in which Cockburn is a psalmist whose songs’ rich images invite us into a world that is “intergenerational, covenantally shaped, morally serious, dialogically open, and politically demanding.” For example, in “Isn’t That What Friends Are For?” (1999), Cockburn scrapes a little light off the darkness—in this case the darkness brought on by a failing friendship—and shares that light with his hearers in the midst of darkness. Walsh’s loving tribute to Cockburn’s artistry, one suffused with grace and generosity, offers a rich introduction to one of our most precious musical talents. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly