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The Grace of God and the Grace of Man: The Theologies of Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen's words and music have been part of the American landscape for nearly half a century, and are today cherished by millions worldwide. Indeed, Springsteen has been known to inspire religious devotion among his fans, and his shows with the E Street Band are often compared to a revivalist congregation. However, there has not been a comprehensive scholarly study of the biblical and theological motifs in Springsteen's lyrics.
Until now.
Reading Springsteen's songs as one would a poem, The Grace of God and the Grace of Man sheds new light on Springsteen's work. The book's first section examines the theological overtones of Springsteen's early albums, focusing on his critique of traditional religious institutions and the promise of this-worldly salvation through romantic love and the open road. This trajectory in Springsteen's writing reaches an exhilarating apex in Born to Run, only to be methodically dismantled in the subsequent Darkness on the Edge of Town. The second section of the book examines the ways in which Springsteen reworks three traditional terms in his work after Darkness on the Edge of Town sin, grace, and the struggle within. Drawing on songs from across Springsteen's later work, the book demonstrates that Springsteen consistently situates these terms in the lived struggle to overcome the forces that pull us away from our better selves. Sin is the surrender to these forces, and grace the blessings that come from overcoming them; both result from the struggle within. The third and final section, "Springsteen's Midrash," examines songs that explicitly interpret biblical passages, including "Into the Fire," "Adam Raised a Cain," and the hauntingly beautiful "Jesus Was an Only Son." The Grace of God and the Grace of Man's close readings of Springsteen's songs provide a wealth of local insights as well as a new critical framework for the appreciation of this major American artist.
Until now.
Reading Springsteen's songs as one would a poem, The Grace of God and the Grace of Man sheds new light on Springsteen's work. The book's first section examines the theological overtones of Springsteen's early albums, focusing on his critique of traditional religious institutions and the promise of this-worldly salvation through romantic love and the open road. This trajectory in Springsteen's writing reaches an exhilarating apex in Born to Run, only to be methodically dismantled in the subsequent Darkness on the Edge of Town. The second section of the book examines the ways in which Springsteen reworks three traditional terms in his work after Darkness on the Edge of Town sin, grace, and the struggle within. Drawing on songs from across Springsteen's later work, the book demonstrates that Springsteen consistently situates these terms in the lived struggle to overcome the forces that pull us away from our better selves. Sin is the surrender to these forces, and grace the blessings that come from overcoming them; both result from the struggle within. The third and final section, "Springsteen's Midrash," examines songs that explicitly interpret biblical passages, including "Into the Fire," "Adam Raised a Cain," and the hauntingly beautiful "Jesus Was an Only Son." The Grace of God and the Grace of Man's close readings of Springsteen's songs provide a wealth of local insights as well as a new critical framework for the appreciation of this major American artist.
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196 pages, Paperback
Published July 20, 2016
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May 27, 2020
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In his dense and impeccably researched 2016 book, The Grace of God and the Grace of Man, Rutgers University Classics and Jewish Studies professor Azzan Yadin-Israel charts a rattlesnake speedway through the biblical references in Springsteen’s lyrics. Yadin-Israel’s pilgrimage takes us some of the songs Springsteen wrote before the release of Greetings from Asbury Park (1973) all the way through “Swallowed Up (In The Belly Of The Whale)” from Wrecking Ball (2014).
Travel through Springsteen’s work and you’ll find a veritable King Solomon’s mine of Bible references, both Old and New Testament, where they illuminate bus drivers, cowboys, dealers, drag racers, dreamers, drivers, factory workers, gamblers, gypsies, lotharios, poets, prophets, single mothers, soldiers, stunt men, veterans, waitresses and everyday heroes residing within the grooves of his oeuvre. In Yadin-Israel’s telling, these references imbue many of Springsteen’s characters with what might be described, in “Cautious Man,” as “the beauty of God’s fallen light.”
As Yadin-Israel admits in his introduction, “…Springsteen himself does not deal with religious and theological matters consistently…Born in the USA, for example, has little or no such imagery.” Perhaps the Bible, classic American cars, The Grapes of Wrath (particularly John Ford’s film version of Steinbeck’s novel), the hard life of the working poor in America (particularly in the southwest on 1995’s The Ghost of Tom Joad, the mise en scène of Asbury Park, the stories of Flannery O’Connor, the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Vietnam War and Westerns (again returning to John Ford) are each a well of images and messages from which Springsteen has drawn freely throughout his almost 50 years of making records.
Yadin-Israel draws from the depths of the deep well of Bible stories referenced in Springsteen’s lyrics, and The Grace of God and The Grace of Man is an archaeological tour of the Holy Land as we find it in Springsteen’s songs: Yadin-Israel he starts with trowels and progresses to sifters and brushes to bring these treasures to light, following the theological thread stitched through the fabric of songs many of us have known and loved for decades. The result of his exhaustive and loving research is, as Raymond Carver put it, a new path to the waterfall. Here’s Yadin-Israel’s analysis of the final verse of “Greasy Lake”:
Locating the lovers in the dirt does not mean that their love is dirty because, crucially, they are singing their birthday song, the “song” each sang at birth. Their nakedness has been transformed into a redemptive force; they are naked and crying out like newborns, having recovered the innocence of Eden on the shores of Greasy Lake.
Songs like “Adam Raised A Cain” and “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” are given their closeups in The Grace of God and The Grace of Man, as are later classics like “Philadelphia,” which references both communion and Judas’ betrayal of Jesus in a single line: “so receive me brother with your faithless kiss,” and “Into the Fire,” of which Yadin-Israel writes:
My analysis focuses on two biblical motifs found in the song: the firefighter’s ascent into the fire, and his laying on of hands on the singer…There is…one fiery ascent in the Hebrew bible, namely, the account of the prophet Elijah’s death, a narrative whose core themes resonate with the narrative of “Into the Fire.”
Toward the end of The Grace of God and The Grace of Man, Yadin-Israel explains the term Midrash, rabbinic biblical interpretation: “Midrash is a conscious and deliberate engagement of scripture, often responding to textual difficulties. At its best, it provides real insight into the biblical text, whether by connecting disparate biblical verses, calling attention to broader interpretive issues….” The Grace of God and The Grace of Man is Yadin-Israel’s midrash of Springsteen’s lyrics – it is expansion and explanation, the addition of more flesh to these mighty bones. There are more hues to Springsteen’s blinding technicolor than we thought; the well is deeper than we knew.
One of the many gifts The Grace of God and The Grace of Man gives Springsteen fans is a brief and lovingly written explanation of the thematic shift Springsteen’s work has taken as he, and we, have grown older. Yadin-Israel closes his discussion of redemption with a section of the lyrics from “Living Proof” from Lucky Town (1992): “and when that train comes we’ll get on board…” Yadin-Israel writes:
These transitions, first from the car as a vehicle of salvific mobility to a vehicle of contemplation, and then from the car to the train, embody the shift in Springsteen’s writing, as a triumphalist celebration of the open road gives way to a muted but still joyful appreciation of the grace available to us in the here-and-now of our lives.
As Springsteen calls out in “Human Touch” from Human Touch (1992), “we’re all riders on this train!” Lucky passengers to be proffered the grace of his songs. The comfort of his voice.
We recently caught up with Professor Yadin-Israel via email; he was gracious enough to submit to a few questions.
Azzan Yadin-Israel in the Asbury Park Casino
Stereo Embers Magazine (SEM): How is it, as a Springsteen fan, you ended up as a professor at Rutgers? Was this your plan all along?
Azzan Yadin-Israel (AYI): Yes. As an undergraduate I majored in philosophy and Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University, then I went to Berkeley to write a Ph.D in second- and third-century rabbinic interpretations of the Hebrew Bible. I suspected I might be able to get a job somewhere in New Jersey, allowing me, 17 years after getting my Ph.D, to write a book on Springsteen. Long game, man.
SEM: What is it about Springsteen’s work that has inspired so much scholarship?
AYI: I think Springsteen is a rare combination of artistry and popularity. On the one hand, he’s a singer-songwriter who is often guided by non-commercial considerations; I’m pretty sure the executives at Columbia weren’t badgering Springsteen to record a bare-bones acoustic album whose title track is written from the point of view of a mass murderer awaiting the electric chair. But that’s what he was working on as an artist, and so he released Nebraska. On the other hand, he’s enjoyed a remarkable amount of popular success. It’s probably fair to say that during the mid- to late-eighties he was one of the most successful performers on the planet. Also, I’m sure there is a disproportionate number of white men in academia and journalism who are or were Springsteen fans.
SEM: Other than Dylan, or perhaps The Beatles, can you think of any other artist whose work would lend itself to a work such as The Grace of God and The Grace of Man?
AYI: I know Leonard Cohen’s music lends itself to this sort of analysis, because not long after my book came out a similar book came out on Leonard Cohen (Tangle of Matter and Ghost by Aubrey Glazer). Many scholars have discussed the overlap between sacred (gospel) and secular in the R&B of the 1950’s and 1960’s, and the borders between country gospel and country music were not that clear for decades. There’s also a great deal of religious and biblical references in some hip-hop artists’ work. Jay-Z used to use the nickname, “Hova,” which was short for J-Hova, i.e., Jehovah, suggesting that he was the god of hip-hop. And a number of my students have suggested Kendrick Lamar’s work is rich with religious and biblical themes. In short, I think there’s probably a great deal of interesting material out there.
SEM: how long did it take you to write The Grace of God and The Grace of Man? Given the bibliography is eight-and-a-half pages…
AYI: This was actually a book I wrote as a break between philological projects. I had just finished a very complicated study of a rabbinic text that doesn’t have a full modern edition. I was working from a 10th-century manuscript for years; I am now working on a book explaining how the Forbidden Fruit came to be identified with the apple. Relatively speaking, The Grace of God and the Grace of Man was a breeze. It took me about eighteen months.
SEM: Do you think you might go back and update the book after Springsteen releases a few more records?
AYI: If the new albums contain biblical or theological motifs, absolutely.
SEM: What are you working on now, and why, and when can we expect to see it?
AYI: As I mentioned above, I’m writing a book on how the Forbidden Fruit came to be identified as an apple. It isn’t in the Bible (just “fruit”), and early commentators, both Jewish and Christian, tended, for various reasons, to identify the fruit with the fig or the grape. It’s an interesting project that involves early Hebrew and Greek works, the Latin commentary tradition and the representation of the Fall of Man in Western art. I’ve finished a draft of the book and have sent it out to colleagues who are experts in each of these fields. Once I get their feedback, I’ll do one final revision and then try to find an academic publisher.
SEM: Your favorite Springsteen album, and why.
AYI: My favorite album is probably Darkness. The album is great on many levels, but what I most admire about it is the way it breaks with expectation. After years of touring and recording, Springsteen really hits it big with Born to Run – Time and Newsweek covers, etc. etc. So what is the next album going to be? Well, if the history of popular music is any indication, some sort of attempt to recapture the vibe of the breakout album. Instead, Springsteen goes a completely different route, releasing a musically and thematically different album that in certain ways explicitly repudiates the claims of Born to Run. That album was all about the promise of the open road, the night-time drive, and the love of a woman. The first line of Darkness on the Edge of Town? “Lights out tonight, trouble in the heartland/got a head-on collision smashin’ in my guts, man.” He takes one of the key themes of Born to Run and flips it on its head – instead of the car evoking imagery of redemption, it’s a head-on collision. It’s not that I prefer the darker material as such, it’s that I admire the artistic integrity of a still young artist (he was only in his late twenties when the album came out) who is writing in a way that’s true to himself, rather than trying to maximize his commercial success. Nebraska is similar in that regard, but by then Springsteen was much more established.
SEM: I’m assuming you’ve seen Springsteen live, maybe more than once. Can you tell us about your favorite show?
AYI: My favorite was without question his Born in the USA show at the Richfield Coliseum, right outside Cleveland. It was the first time I saw him and I was in high school, and even if you remain connected to music and rock and roll throughout your life, there’s a raw, primal quality to experiencing music when you’re 16 that can’t be replicated later in life. At least in my experience.
SEM: What’s god going to ask Springsteen when they finally meet?
AYI: He’ll probably try to find out if there’s any way to get a hold of the 1966 recordings Bruce made with the Castiles.
In his dense and impeccably researched 2016 book, The Grace of God and the Grace of Man, Rutgers University Classics and Jewish Studies professor Azzan Yadin-Israel charts a rattlesnake speedway through the biblical references in Springsteen’s lyrics. Yadin-Israel’s pilgrimage takes us some of the songs Springsteen wrote before the release of Greetings from Asbury Park (1973) all the way through “Swallowed Up (In The Belly Of The Whale)” from Wrecking Ball (2014).
Travel through Springsteen’s work and you’ll find a veritable King Solomon’s mine of Bible references, both Old and New Testament, where they illuminate bus drivers, cowboys, dealers, drag racers, dreamers, drivers, factory workers, gamblers, gypsies, lotharios, poets, prophets, single mothers, soldiers, stunt men, veterans, waitresses and everyday heroes residing within the grooves of his oeuvre. In Yadin-Israel’s telling, these references imbue many of Springsteen’s characters with what might be described, in “Cautious Man,” as “the beauty of God’s fallen light.”
As Yadin-Israel admits in his introduction, “…Springsteen himself does not deal with religious and theological matters consistently…Born in the USA, for example, has little or no such imagery.” Perhaps the Bible, classic American cars, The Grapes of Wrath (particularly John Ford’s film version of Steinbeck’s novel), the hard life of the working poor in America (particularly in the southwest on 1995’s The Ghost of Tom Joad, the mise en scène of Asbury Park, the stories of Flannery O’Connor, the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Vietnam War and Westerns (again returning to John Ford) are each a well of images and messages from which Springsteen has drawn freely throughout his almost 50 years of making records.
Yadin-Israel draws from the depths of the deep well of Bible stories referenced in Springsteen’s lyrics, and The Grace of God and The Grace of Man is an archaeological tour of the Holy Land as we find it in Springsteen’s songs: Yadin-Israel he starts with trowels and progresses to sifters and brushes to bring these treasures to light, following the theological thread stitched through the fabric of songs many of us have known and loved for decades. The result of his exhaustive and loving research is, as Raymond Carver put it, a new path to the waterfall. Here’s Yadin-Israel’s analysis of the final verse of “Greasy Lake”:
Locating the lovers in the dirt does not mean that their love is dirty because, crucially, they are singing their birthday song, the “song” each sang at birth. Their nakedness has been transformed into a redemptive force; they are naked and crying out like newborns, having recovered the innocence of Eden on the shores of Greasy Lake.
Songs like “Adam Raised A Cain” and “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” are given their closeups in The Grace of God and The Grace of Man, as are later classics like “Philadelphia,” which references both communion and Judas’ betrayal of Jesus in a single line: “so receive me brother with your faithless kiss,” and “Into the Fire,” of which Yadin-Israel writes:
My analysis focuses on two biblical motifs found in the song: the firefighter’s ascent into the fire, and his laying on of hands on the singer…There is…one fiery ascent in the Hebrew bible, namely, the account of the prophet Elijah’s death, a narrative whose core themes resonate with the narrative of “Into the Fire.”
Toward the end of The Grace of God and The Grace of Man, Yadin-Israel explains the term Midrash, rabbinic biblical interpretation: “Midrash is a conscious and deliberate engagement of scripture, often responding to textual difficulties. At its best, it provides real insight into the biblical text, whether by connecting disparate biblical verses, calling attention to broader interpretive issues….” The Grace of God and The Grace of Man is Yadin-Israel’s midrash of Springsteen’s lyrics – it is expansion and explanation, the addition of more flesh to these mighty bones. There are more hues to Springsteen’s blinding technicolor than we thought; the well is deeper than we knew.
One of the many gifts The Grace of God and The Grace of Man gives Springsteen fans is a brief and lovingly written explanation of the thematic shift Springsteen’s work has taken as he, and we, have grown older. Yadin-Israel closes his discussion of redemption with a section of the lyrics from “Living Proof” from Lucky Town (1992): “and when that train comes we’ll get on board…” Yadin-Israel writes:
These transitions, first from the car as a vehicle of salvific mobility to a vehicle of contemplation, and then from the car to the train, embody the shift in Springsteen’s writing, as a triumphalist celebration of the open road gives way to a muted but still joyful appreciation of the grace available to us in the here-and-now of our lives.
As Springsteen calls out in “Human Touch” from Human Touch (1992), “we’re all riders on this train!” Lucky passengers to be proffered the grace of his songs. The comfort of his voice.
We recently caught up with Professor Yadin-Israel via email; he was gracious enough to submit to a few questions.
Azzan Yadin-Israel in the Asbury Park Casino
Stereo Embers Magazine (SEM): How is it, as a Springsteen fan, you ended up as a professor at Rutgers? Was this your plan all along?
Azzan Yadin-Israel (AYI): Yes. As an undergraduate I majored in philosophy and Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University, then I went to Berkeley to write a Ph.D in second- and third-century rabbinic interpretations of the Hebrew Bible. I suspected I might be able to get a job somewhere in New Jersey, allowing me, 17 years after getting my Ph.D, to write a book on Springsteen. Long game, man.
SEM: What is it about Springsteen’s work that has inspired so much scholarship?
AYI: I think Springsteen is a rare combination of artistry and popularity. On the one hand, he’s a singer-songwriter who is often guided by non-commercial considerations; I’m pretty sure the executives at Columbia weren’t badgering Springsteen to record a bare-bones acoustic album whose title track is written from the point of view of a mass murderer awaiting the electric chair. But that’s what he was working on as an artist, and so he released Nebraska. On the other hand, he’s enjoyed a remarkable amount of popular success. It’s probably fair to say that during the mid- to late-eighties he was one of the most successful performers on the planet. Also, I’m sure there is a disproportionate number of white men in academia and journalism who are or were Springsteen fans.
SEM: Other than Dylan, or perhaps The Beatles, can you think of any other artist whose work would lend itself to a work such as The Grace of God and The Grace of Man?
AYI: I know Leonard Cohen’s music lends itself to this sort of analysis, because not long after my book came out a similar book came out on Leonard Cohen (Tangle of Matter and Ghost by Aubrey Glazer). Many scholars have discussed the overlap between sacred (gospel) and secular in the R&B of the 1950’s and 1960’s, and the borders between country gospel and country music were not that clear for decades. There’s also a great deal of religious and biblical references in some hip-hop artists’ work. Jay-Z used to use the nickname, “Hova,” which was short for J-Hova, i.e., Jehovah, suggesting that he was the god of hip-hop. And a number of my students have suggested Kendrick Lamar’s work is rich with religious and biblical themes. In short, I think there’s probably a great deal of interesting material out there.
SEM: how long did it take you to write The Grace of God and The Grace of Man? Given the bibliography is eight-and-a-half pages…
AYI: This was actually a book I wrote as a break between philological projects. I had just finished a very complicated study of a rabbinic text that doesn’t have a full modern edition. I was working from a 10th-century manuscript for years; I am now working on a book explaining how the Forbidden Fruit came to be identified with the apple. Relatively speaking, The Grace of God and the Grace of Man was a breeze. It took me about eighteen months.
SEM: Do you think you might go back and update the book after Springsteen releases a few more records?
AYI: If the new albums contain biblical or theological motifs, absolutely.
SEM: What are you working on now, and why, and when can we expect to see it?
AYI: As I mentioned above, I’m writing a book on how the Forbidden Fruit came to be identified as an apple. It isn’t in the Bible (just “fruit”), and early commentators, both Jewish and Christian, tended, for various reasons, to identify the fruit with the fig or the grape. It’s an interesting project that involves early Hebrew and Greek works, the Latin commentary tradition and the representation of the Fall of Man in Western art. I’ve finished a draft of the book and have sent it out to colleagues who are experts in each of these fields. Once I get their feedback, I’ll do one final revision and then try to find an academic publisher.
SEM: Your favorite Springsteen album, and why.
AYI: My favorite album is probably Darkness. The album is great on many levels, but what I most admire about it is the way it breaks with expectation. After years of touring and recording, Springsteen really hits it big with Born to Run – Time and Newsweek covers, etc. etc. So what is the next album going to be? Well, if the history of popular music is any indication, some sort of attempt to recapture the vibe of the breakout album. Instead, Springsteen goes a completely different route, releasing a musically and thematically different album that in certain ways explicitly repudiates the claims of Born to Run. That album was all about the promise of the open road, the night-time drive, and the love of a woman. The first line of Darkness on the Edge of Town? “Lights out tonight, trouble in the heartland/got a head-on collision smashin’ in my guts, man.” He takes one of the key themes of Born to Run and flips it on its head – instead of the car evoking imagery of redemption, it’s a head-on collision. It’s not that I prefer the darker material as such, it’s that I admire the artistic integrity of a still young artist (he was only in his late twenties when the album came out) who is writing in a way that’s true to himself, rather than trying to maximize his commercial success. Nebraska is similar in that regard, but by then Springsteen was much more established.
SEM: I’m assuming you’ve seen Springsteen live, maybe more than once. Can you tell us about your favorite show?
AYI: My favorite was without question his Born in the USA show at the Richfield Coliseum, right outside Cleveland. It was the first time I saw him and I was in high school, and even if you remain connected to music and rock and roll throughout your life, there’s a raw, primal quality to experiencing music when you’re 16 that can’t be replicated later in life. At least in my experience.
SEM: What’s god going to ask Springsteen when they finally meet?
AYI: He’ll probably try to find out if there’s any way to get a hold of the 1966 recordings Bruce made with the Castiles.
April 29, 2019
When you combine a songwriting and poetic voice like Bruce Springsteen with a firm Roman Catholic upbringing you get a catalog filled with Biblical allusions and theological claims about the nature of human existence, the role of God and the reality of the divine in everyday life. So Springsteen was tailor-made for one of the "Gospel According to..." books, and indeed Unitarian minister Jeffrey B. Symynkywicz wrote one in 2008. It was not one of the shallowest among that trend of titles, but Symynkywicz's decision to organize his book as an album-by-album exploration and finding a single theology or single idea running through the entire catalog limited his ability to dig deeply into the more meaningful parts of Springsteen's work.
Rutgers University Professor of Jewish Studies Azzan Yadin-Israel took a different tack when preparing his own 2016 work, The Grace of God and the Grace of Man. Yaddin-Israel's professional work involves exploring texts themselves, such as ancient Jewish poetry, Biblical writings, the Talmud or different midrashic commentaries on Old Testament stories. He decided to examine different Springsteen songs as texts themselves, rather than as clues to a single or small number of main themes. He also focuses only on the theological questions or issues raised in the song itself, rather than Springsteens's own religious beliefs and opinions. Obviously those beliefs influence the material, but Yaddin-Israel takes Springsteen's own admonition seriously: "Trust the art, be suspicious of the artist. He's generally untrustworthy himself." Yaddin-Israel wrote before Springsteen frequently reinforced that idea in his own Broadway show, but he still refrains from trying to link what a particular song may say to what Springsteen himself might say on a particular matter.
Yaddin-Israel divides Grace into three parts. In the first he explores Springsteen's earlier catalogue, up through Darkness on the Edge of Town. It's the most self-consciously poetic period of his work, filled with outsized characters and word-blizzard street folktales that resolve only at a little distance. The center section revolves around different theological themes and they way different songs express them. This section combines songs from different eras of Springsteen's career. The final section picks a handful of songs in which Springsteen writes and sings a "midrash," or retelling, of a Biblical story to highlight an aspect of its meaning or even an alternative understanding.
In focusing on Springsteen's most overtly theological and Biblically-influenced writing, Yaddin-Israel chooses to leave out parts of the catalog that have less of those qualities. This means that some of his more famous work -- like the entirety of Born in the U.S.A. -- won't be found here or will be referenced in passing. Many of those songs may reflect on their subject matter just as deeply as some of the ones that Yaddin-Israel includes, but their lack of theological or Biblical flavoring puts them off this particular menu.
All three sections, as well as an insightful introduction covering the possibility of gleaning theological insight from pop or rock music and an interesting conclusion about these influences in Springsteen's writing, are worth reading. The middle section organized along themes bogs down a little and probably reaches for some of its allusions, but it's still a rewarding read.
The conclusion mentioned above is one Springsteen himself has reached, according to several interviews. His Catholic school upbringing remains a part of his songwriting vocabulary in the same way that the blue-collar life of Freehold, N.J., does, and the same way that the cars-and-girls rock and soul songs of the 1950s and 1960s do. My own Methodist founder, John Wesley, referred to himself as a "man of one book," meaning that his speaking and writing was so infused with Biblical imagery and language that he used those scriptural passages as his own language. Springsteen is by no means a man of one book, but the same book which influenced Mr. Wesley walks through his words and songs more than many might suspect. I wonder if I could pitch that to a publisher...
Original available here.
Rutgers University Professor of Jewish Studies Azzan Yadin-Israel took a different tack when preparing his own 2016 work, The Grace of God and the Grace of Man. Yaddin-Israel's professional work involves exploring texts themselves, such as ancient Jewish poetry, Biblical writings, the Talmud or different midrashic commentaries on Old Testament stories. He decided to examine different Springsteen songs as texts themselves, rather than as clues to a single or small number of main themes. He also focuses only on the theological questions or issues raised in the song itself, rather than Springsteens's own religious beliefs and opinions. Obviously those beliefs influence the material, but Yaddin-Israel takes Springsteen's own admonition seriously: "Trust the art, be suspicious of the artist. He's generally untrustworthy himself." Yaddin-Israel wrote before Springsteen frequently reinforced that idea in his own Broadway show, but he still refrains from trying to link what a particular song may say to what Springsteen himself might say on a particular matter.
Yaddin-Israel divides Grace into three parts. In the first he explores Springsteen's earlier catalogue, up through Darkness on the Edge of Town. It's the most self-consciously poetic period of his work, filled with outsized characters and word-blizzard street folktales that resolve only at a little distance. The center section revolves around different theological themes and they way different songs express them. This section combines songs from different eras of Springsteen's career. The final section picks a handful of songs in which Springsteen writes and sings a "midrash," or retelling, of a Biblical story to highlight an aspect of its meaning or even an alternative understanding.
In focusing on Springsteen's most overtly theological and Biblically-influenced writing, Yaddin-Israel chooses to leave out parts of the catalog that have less of those qualities. This means that some of his more famous work -- like the entirety of Born in the U.S.A. -- won't be found here or will be referenced in passing. Many of those songs may reflect on their subject matter just as deeply as some of the ones that Yaddin-Israel includes, but their lack of theological or Biblical flavoring puts them off this particular menu.
All three sections, as well as an insightful introduction covering the possibility of gleaning theological insight from pop or rock music and an interesting conclusion about these influences in Springsteen's writing, are worth reading. The middle section organized along themes bogs down a little and probably reaches for some of its allusions, but it's still a rewarding read.
The conclusion mentioned above is one Springsteen himself has reached, according to several interviews. His Catholic school upbringing remains a part of his songwriting vocabulary in the same way that the blue-collar life of Freehold, N.J., does, and the same way that the cars-and-girls rock and soul songs of the 1950s and 1960s do. My own Methodist founder, John Wesley, referred to himself as a "man of one book," meaning that his speaking and writing was so infused with Biblical imagery and language that he used those scriptural passages as his own language. Springsteen is by no means a man of one book, but the same book which influenced Mr. Wesley walks through his words and songs more than many might suspect. I wonder if I could pitch that to a publisher...
Original available here.
December 29, 2016
A fairly enjoyable trek through an oft-neglected aspect of Springsteen's work. While the explanation of each individual song became rather tiresome towards the conclusion of this book, Yadin-Israel's cumulative understanding is profound, unique, and will forever change the way that you listen to Springsteen's music. This book serves as a reminder that one cannot fully understand or appreciate a vast majority of the Western culture (be it literature, music, or drama) without a somewhat workable understanding of the Christian religion.
March 18, 2024
This is the intersection of things I Love: Bruce, faith and grace so I enjoyed the read but it was esoteric. This is likely to appeal to a narrow audience who love biblical themes, Bruce and who have high tolerance for academic writing.
July 15, 2025
If you read reviews or commentary about Bruce, you're bound to come across those who object to him having become "political" but what about having become religious? This book lays it out from his early days of rebelling against and mocking it to how it's permeated his work from "Darkness on the Edge of Town" to the present day. In fact, he freely admits to interviewers how heavily his Catholic upbringing has influenced his writing. This book is an insightful examination of just what the title says. The author provides plenty of examples and citations for those who like to delve into a songwriter's inner process.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews