The first is a wonderful analysis of Marley’s lyrics, album-by-album (from Catch a Fire to Confrontation), by the internationally famous poet, Kwame Dawes.
Dawes was born in Ghana, but spent his childhood and early adult life in Jamaica, before moving to the USA. Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius is published in at least two editions (Sanctuary Publishing, 2002; and Bobcat Books, 2007).
The Bible and Bob Marley: Half the Story Has Never Been Told
The book doesn’t analyze every biblical reference but focuses on the two main ways Marley’s lyrics appeal to the Bible. The first is his use of wisdom themes from Proverbs and elsewhere in the Old Testament and the second is his use of language from Paul’s epistles in the New Testament to articulate his mission as a Rasta / reggae ambassador to the world.
Dean MacNeil is a jazz musician who for many years taught a summer course on Bob Marley at the Berklee School of Music, which resulted in a student band doing a concert of Marley’s songs at the end of the semester. He has an MA in theology from Loyola Marymount University.
Hodges is a Brit teaching literature in Canada. He did his PhD at the University of Toronto with the famous Jamaican poet Lorna Goodison. His chapter on Marley is called, “Walk Good: Bob Marley and the Oratorical Tradition.” In it he suggests that Marley’s performances have a call-and-response character, where Marley functions like a Pentecostal or charismatic preacher, and his albums (especially Survival and Uprising) have the rhetorical power of charismatic sermons.
The Subversive Spirituality of Reggae
On February 17, 2023 I gave a presentation called “The Subversive Spirituality of Reggae: ‘Resisting against the System’ in the Music of Bob Marley & the Wailers,” in Rochester, NY. It was held at the Joy Gallery. Thanks to artist and RIT professor, Luvon Sheppard, for hosting us. The presentation was sponsored by the Rochester Jamaican Organization in celebration of Reggae Month.
Bob Marley’s “One Love / People Get Ready” transforms Curtis Mayfield’s original song in the direction of mercy and grace for “hopeless sinners.”
“One Love” was clearly influenced by the Curtis Mayfield song “People Get Ready” (recorded with the Impressions in 1965). The way Marley quotes (and changes) the lyrics of the Mayfield song amounts to a critique of the self-righteousness of many in the church (and in the wider society).
Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready“
Mayfield’s song is about the salvation train and what it takes to get on board. The second verse says:
Open the doors and board ’em There’s hope for all Among those loved the most
But the next verse goes on to say:
There ain’t no room for the hopeless sinner Who would hurt all mankind just to save his own (believe me now) Have pity on those whose chances grow thinner For there is no hiding place against the Kingdom’s Throne
“People Get Ready” is a wonderful song that functioned as an anthem in the American civil rights movement. And I have no intention of denigrating the song or the way it functioned.
Mayfield’s song makes a clear distinction between “those loved the most,” who have a place on the salvation train, and “hopeless sinners.” It claims that there’s no room for these sinners on the salvation train; they are “hopeless.”
While the song goes on to say that we should have pity on these sinners, the reason is that they will inevitably experience judgment (with “no hiding place”).
Now, I don’t deny that there is a real distinction to be made between someone who seeks love and justice and the person “who would hurt all mankind just to save his own.” Nor would Bob Marley.
The question is whether we can decide who fits into which category and so who is excluded from the salvation train. Who do we think are the “hopeless sinners”? This is especially important in our time of toxic polarization and identity politics in American society.
Marley himself had to address this sort of polarization in Jamaica, given the tradition of warring gangs, each of which was aligned with one of the two main political parties.
Bob Marley’s “One Love”
So Marley uses these key lines from “People Get Ready” in “One Love,” while changing “against the Kingdom’s Throne” to “from the Father of Creation.” Whereas “Kingdom’s Throne” suggests judgment, “the Father of Creation” suggests one who loves us.
That is why Marley prefaces these lines with his desire that the sinners be saved (“there will be no, no doom”).
In the quote below, “Armagiddyon” is Marley’s phonetic spelling of Armageddon, the symbolic place of the final battle between good and evil. Marley suggests that we should be fighting this battle now; and we should be fighting against evil (not against the sinners).
Let’s get together to fight this Holy Armagiddyon (One Love!) So when the Man comes there will be no, no doom (One Song!) Have pity on those whose chances grows thinner There ain’t no hiding place from the Father of Creation
But perhaps the most profound lines of all in the song come in the first verse, where Marley challenges those who are scandalized by the radical forgiveness the gospel offers to sinners (that’s why they and “pass all their dirty remarks”).
Let them all pass all their dirty remarks (One Love!) There is one question I’d really love to ask (One Heart!) Is there a place for the hopeless sinner Who has hurt all mankind just to save his own? Believe me: One Love . . . .
Note that Marley rephrases the statement in Mayfield’s “People Get Ready” that there is no room for these “hopeless sinners” into a question, raising the possibility of their redemption.
Both in his music and in his life, Marley actively sought to turn even “hopeless sinners” from their ways so they could be reconciled to God and to others.
The 1978 Peace Concert
A famous example is the 1978 Peace Concert in Kingston, Jamaica, in which Marley got Michael Manley and Edward Seaga, the leaders of the two opposing political parties in Jamaica, to join hands on stage as he prayed a blessing over them.
This documentary about the concert also explains the situation that led up to the concert (and the temporary reconciliation between rival political gangs; sadly, it did not last).
The actual concert footage is quite long. If you want to see the section where Bob calls up the leaders of the two political parties and pronounces a blessing on them, go to the 1-hour and 17-minute mark (this section is about four minutes long). Bob’s antics on stage remind me of a Pentecostal preacher calling down the power of the Spirit.
In my next post, I’ll recommend some writings that analyze the lyrics of Marley’s songs:
On February 17, 2023 I gave a presentation called “The Subversive Spirituality of Reggae: ‘Resisting against the System’ in the Music of Bob Marley & the Wailers,” in Rochester, NY. It was held at the Joy Gallery. Thanks to artist and RIT professor, Luvon Sheppard, for hosting us. The presentation was sponsored by the Rochester Jamaican Organization in celebration of Reggae Month.
There has been a lot of talk over the past twenty years or so about “deconstructing” the Christian faith (especially its evangelical versions). The problem, however, is that sometimes there is no substantial reconstruction that aims to recover the authentic, classical faith tradition—beyond its distortions.
I Began Deconstruction as an Undergraduate Theology Student
Although I would not have described it that way at the time, I was engaged in deconstruction (and reconstruction) of my faith from the very start of my undergraduate theological studies in Jamaica. I was blessed with a pastor at Grace Missionary Church and with professors at Jamaica Theological Seminary who welcomed healthy questioning and modeled an open and generous—fully orthodox—Christianity.
I have come to realize that this openness to questioning inherited traditions was also a function of doing theology in the Majority World, since both professors and students were vividly aware of the need for contextualization of the faith for the sake of the Caribbean church. We were thus prepared to challenge received versions of our church traditions, especially when they were shaped by Eurocentric or American biases. Professors and (especially) students in my Jamaican context were unafraid to dismantle what we thought was unhelpful, while seeking to be grounded in a better version of the core tradition of our faith.
As a result of my formative theological education in Jamaica, the deconstruction-reconstruction dialectic has been central to all my teaching and writing over the years.
Deconstruction and Reconstruction in My Writing
As a biblical scholar, committed to the renewal of the church, I have typically challenged received interpretations of Scripture in my books and articles. My approach has been to try and show that these interpretations are not rooted in a best reading of Scripture nor are they helpful for faithful living in our complex world.
In each case, I have attempted to propose better interpretations of these topics than what I found in the received tradition—better in that they arise from more careful reading of Scripture and that they have transformative implications for human life in the real world.
Deconstruction and Reconstruction in My Teaching—Toward a Christian Worldview
This dialectic of deconstruction and reconstruction is at the core of a signature course on a Christian worldview that I have been teaching (and constantly developing) for many decades, focusing on biblical theology in dialogue with the contemporary world.
In a couple of years I will begin working on a new version of that book, based on the way the course has evolved over the years. My tentative title for the new book is Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws: The Bible’s Liberating Worldview (to be published with Baker Academic).
The course challenges students to rethink their orientation to life by re-reading Scripture as a grounding story that takes seriously our pain and our hopes. The course combines engaged biblical interpretation with historical analysis of the church’s sacred/secular dualism, the western myth of conquest and progress, and the postmodern condition, while encouraging students to explore their calling in God’s world.
I’ve been teaching this course since 2002 for undergraduates at Roberts Wesleyan University under the title “Exploring the Christian Worldview.” I’ve also taught a version of the course since 2011 for graduate students at Northeastern Seminary, where it was called “Being in the Story.” Its current name is “Biblical Worldview: Scripture, Theology, Ethics.”
More than any other course, this one often leads to student disorientation. As the course progresses, it is common for students to exclaim with dismay, “Oh no, I need to unlearn everything I have been taught!” I usually point out that they may need to unlearn some things, but that they typically have a pretty solid and stable core of faith to build on.
Starting with Trust, before Deconstruction
I have learned not to begin with deconstruction. A hermeneutic of suspicion is an important second step in the learning process; but we need to start with a hermeneutic of trust (and trust is where we end too). First, I offer students a more excellent way; then comes the critique of unhelpful tradition.
The metaphor that I use to explain my pedagogy is as follows: I begin by offering students the rich, plush carpet of biblical faith, then I gently begin to pull the threadbare rug of bad theology and inadequate biblical interpretation out from under them. They usually step quite eagerly onto the plush carpet.
At the end of one memorable course in Old Testament theology, which I taught at the Caribbean Graduate School of Theology in Jamaica while on sabbatical, a student stood up on the last day of class and said (with a huge smile on his face): “Professor, you destroyed my theology!”
Of course, he had found something better. That’s the way deconstruction ought to work.
CREATION to ESCHATON 