Progressive Rock, Religion, and Theology

Book excerpt: Progressive Rock, Religion, and Theology examines progressive rock music’s engagement with theology and religion, which spans an array of artists and songs from its early days to the present. Co-written by a musician and a professor of religious studies, this book looks closely not only at lyrics but at the music itself and how the two together serve to foster the exploration of religious and spiritual themes from a wide array of angles. Each chapter covers a key song by ELP, Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Kansas, Rush, and Neal Morse as well as tracing the themes from those songs into other works by the same artist and the music of others. Readers will get to know music that is familiar to them through an academic lens, and will discover that its engagement with theological ideas, if not typically informed by study of academic theologians, is nonetheless at times both intellectually rigorous and profoundly insightful.