A few years ago, I was caught up in a big research project about contemporary hymns (or \u201chymnody,\u201d\u009d as they say in the trade). I listened to hundreds of hymns on Spotify; I interviewed a bunch of hymn experts. What, I asked them, was the most successful contemporary hymn\u201d\u201dthe modern successor to \u201cMorning Has Broken\u201d\u009d or \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d\u009d? Some cited recently written traditional church hymns; others mentioned songs by popular Christian musicians. But one scholar pointed in a different direction: \u201cIf you\u2019re willing to construe the term \u201d\u02dchymn\u2019 liberally, then the most heard, most successful hymn of the last few decades could be \u201d\u02dcI Still Haven\u2019t Found What I\u2019m Looking For,\u2019 by U2.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Most people think of U2 as a wildly popular rock band. Actually, they\u2019re a wildly popular, semi-secretly Christian rock band. In some ways, this seems obvious: a song on one recent album was called \u201cYahweh,\u201d\u009d and where else would the streets have no name? But even critics and fans who say that they know about U2\u2019s Christianity often underestimate how important it is to the band\u2019s music, and to the U2 phenomenon. The result has been a divide that\u2019s unusual in pop culture. While secular listeners tend to think of U2\u2019s religiosity as preachy window dressing, religious listeners see faith as central to the band\u2019s identity. To some people, Bono\u2019s lyrics are treacly platitudes, verging on nonsense; to others, they\u2019re thoughtful, searching, and profound meditations on faith.<\/p>\n
Christianity Today regularly covers U2, not just as another Christian rock band but as one of special significance. In 2004, the magazine ran an article about Bono\u2019s \u201cthin ecclesiology\u201d\u009d\u201d\u201dhis unwillingness to affiliate himself with a church\u201d\u201dthat sparked a debate about the health of organized religion. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, addressed the issue of Bono\u2019s belief in a fascinating 2008 lecture about the place of organized faith in secular society.<\/p>\n