The similar phrase 'Worldly Christianity' is one used by Bonhoeffer. It's J Gresham Machen that I want to line up most closely with. See his Christianity and culture here. Having done commentaries on Proverbs (Heavenly Wisdom) and Song of Songs (Heavenly Love), a matching title for Ecclesiastes would be Heavenly Worldliness. For my stance on worldliness, see 3 posts here.

Retro Album "of the week" 43 - All that you can't leave behind

I wanted to include a U2 album here. I like some of the early albums (War, Boy, etc) and especially The Joshua Tree which nearly got the vote. Instead I've gone for the 2000 album All That You Can't Leave Behind the tenth studio album. Produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, it gets back to what they do best afte rhaving lost themselves for a while. The critics and the fans liked this album and it sold over 12 million copies. Four successful singles were taken from the album, the superb "Beautiful Day" plus "Walk On", "Elevation" and the classic "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of". It 2won seven Grammy Awards. It is the only album in history to have multiple tracks win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year: "Beautiful Day" in 2001 and "Walk On" in 2002.
Early versions of the cover released to the press show a departure sign that reads "F21-36", however, this was changed to J33-3 in reference to the Bible verse Jeremiah 33:3, "Call unto me and I will answer thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not." Bono referred to it as "God's phone number". Grace is an interesting song and Peace on earth a sort of alternative Christmas thing.

1 comment:

Guy Davies said...

Good choice. A 'return to form' album after the Pop and Zooropa fails.