“Bring On Your Wrecking Ball”: Psalm 73 and Public Witness
This article explores Bruce Springsteen’s recent album Wrecking Ball and Psalm 73 as forms of public witness. Both artists rage against the injustice of profiteers, until, in the case of Psalm 73, there is a decisive turn toward praise once the psalmist enters the sanctuary. How does this kind of re...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage Publ.
2013
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| In: |
Theology today
Year: 2013, Volume: 70, Issue: 1, Pages: 62-68 |
| Further subjects: | B
Resistance
B Justice B Song B Worship B Memory B Springsteen B Psalm 73 B Praise B Sanctuary |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article explores Bruce Springsteen’s recent album Wrecking Ball and Psalm 73 as forms of public witness. Both artists rage against the injustice of profiteers, until, in the case of Psalm 73, there is a decisive turn toward praise once the psalmist enters the sanctuary. How does this kind of resistance (and praise) art become rhetorically effective? Both Springsteen and the psalmist concretize their work through the use of memory, memory that draws their audience in, thus making the performance (a Springsteen concert, or the psalm itself) the first instance of a larger posture of resistance. For Springsteen, stories conjure other stories in the audience, thus making public what were private griefs, and transforming individual despair into a solidarity of resistance. That first opportunity to stand up against oppression funds other opportunities. The psalmist also concretizes injustice, and resistance to it, within Israel’s memory and story. The psalmist’s hearers can call upon their own collective experience in order to understand how Psalm 73 sets the stage for a new beginning of justice and resistance to the injustice that is still pervasive in the land. Such a new beginning calls for a cry of praise, for finally, when injustice abounds, one must keep on singing. |
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| ISSN: | 2044-2556 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Theology today
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/0040573612473142 |