Resistance and Songs – Part 1

I am very fond of the Anglican hymns written at the turn of the 20th century. I love their melodies, their harmonies, and even more their texts. More exactly, I love how all of these combined create a unique flavor and ambience which is not just that of religious exaltation, but include a profound sense of engagement with life and society.

The best combinations are those employing a melody taken from English or Irish folk songs with verses written to address social situations. See, for example, these words written by G.K. Chesterton for the Hymnal of 1906: From all that terror teaches / From lies of tongue and pen / From all the easy speeches / That comfort cruel men / Deliver us, O Lord!

For Christmas, an interesting choice still available in the current hymnal of the Episcopal Church is represented by these verses by Laurence Housman: Lust of possessions worketh desolations / there is no meekness in the powers of earth / led by no star, the rulers of the nations/ still fail to bring us to the blissful birth.

Perhaps the most courageous of all Anglican hymns is this one: God is the only Landlord/ To whom our rents are due./ God made the earth for everyone/ And not for just a few./ The four parts of creation — / Earth, water, air, and fire — / God made and ranked and stationed/ For everyone’s desire. Refrain: Lift up the people’s banner / And let the ancient cry / For justice and for freedom/ Re-echo to the sky.

Any discussion about the uneasy combination of imperialism and socialism within the Anglican tradition must wait, but I hope I made my point about the energetic and engaged character of this repertoire which I love.

Where are today the same energy and social consciousness in religious hymns? Surely not in the boring harmonies, cloying melodies, and frankly sentimental texts of evangelical music. The “contemporary ensembles” of the (once) mainstream churches do not fare much better, besides choosing music usually impossible to sing for the congregation.

A very interesting solution has emerged in circles apparently far distant from each other such as those of Neopagans covens and Christian monasteries. Chants and mantra-like repetitions — among whom my favorite Taizé songs — represent a way to involve easily everybody in the practice, while building an atmosphere of peace and calm concentration.

Yet, while the mystic in us is awakened by such kind of music, the prophetic voice rarely can emerge from it.

I find instead the same energy of strength, resilience, and challenge to power — which I like so much — in non-church pieces that are to me no less transcendent than my favorite hymns, even though they bear no explicit religious connotation.

One example is the song “Mio fratello che guardi il mondo” written over 30 years ago by Italian poet/singer Ivano Fossati:

My brother looking onto the world… but the world does not look like you/My brother looking into the sky… but the sky does not look back to you./If there’s a road under the sea, sooner or later it will find us/ If there is no road in other people’s heart, sooner or later it will be traced!/ I was born and I died in every country/ and I defended my dignity at a high price/ I was born and I worked in every country/ and I walked on every road of the world that you can see.

Here are the words in Italian: Mio fratello che guardi il mondo e il mondo non somiglia a te. Mio fratello che guardi il cielo e il cielo non ti guarda. Se c’è una strada sotto il mare, prima o poi ci incontrerà. Se non c’è strada dentro il cuore degli altri, prima o poi si traccerà. Sono nato e sono morto in ogni paese, e ho difeso con fatica la mia dignità. Sono nato e ho lavorato in ogni paese, e ho camminato su ogni strada del mondo che vedi. Mio fratello… 

More evocative than direct, this text — which I hope you can hear with its music — was immediately heard as speaking about the hardship of the immigrants who look for a solution to their plight, and who think about sailing across the Mediterranean sea, risking their life to reach Europe.

Sometimes I think that God, having being bored to death by church songs, is hiding now within “secular” music that has a heart. It is this kind of music and poetry that can help us navigate this difficult time of ours.

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See Matthew Fox, Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet

See also Fox and Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

And Fox, Prayer: A Radical Response to Life

And Fox, Trump and the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election

Banner image: “We Shall Overcome” is a classic song of the Civil Rights Movement, sung here at the Civil Rights Summit on April 10, 2014. Pictured are: Julián Castro, Pamela Horowitz, Julian Bond, Luci Baines Johnson, Ian Turpin, Graciela Cigarroa, and Francisco Cigarroa. Photo by David Hume Kennerly. Wikimedia Commons

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Queries for Contemplation

What songs are giving you hope and strength at this time?

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Related Readings by Matthew Fox

Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet

Because creativity is the key to both our genius and beauty as a species but also to our capacity for evil, we need to teach creativity and to teach ways of steering this God-like power in directions that promote love of life (biophilia) and not love of death (necrophilia). Pushing well beyond the bounds of conventional Christian doctrine, Fox’s focus on creativity attempts nothing less than to shape a new ethic.
“Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow.  Countless numbers will be happy to follow his lead.” –Bishop John Shelby Spong, author, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Living in Sin

Prayer: A Radical Response to Life

How do prayer and mysticism relate to the struggle for social and ecological justice? Fox defines prayer as a radical response to life that includes our “Yes” to life (mysticism) and our “No” to forces that combat life (prophecy). How do we define adult prayer? And how—if at all—do prayer and mysticism relate to the struggle for social and ecological justice? One of Matthew Fox’s earliest books, originally published under the title On Becoming a Musical, Mystical Bear: Spirituality American Style, Prayer introduces a mystical/prophetic spirituality and a mature conception of how to pray. Called a “classic” when it first appeared, it lays out the difference between the creation spirituality tradition and the fall/redemption tradition that has so dominated Western theology since Augustine. A practical and theoretical book, it lays the groundwork for Fox’s later works. “One of the finest books I have read on contemporary spirituality.” – Rabbi Sholom A. Singer

Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election

Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE. 
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE. 
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.