Bono's De Anima
Wouldn't want anyone to miss Bono, lead singer for U2's op-ed in the NY Times from this weekend. Bono helpfully queries: Do You Know Where Your Soul Is?
It's a fair question, of course--an urgent one, even--but Bono trots out some pretty stale answers. He writes:
I come to lowly church halls and lofty cathedrals for what purpose? I search the Scriptures to what end? To check my head? My heart? No, my soul. For me these meditations are like a plumb line dropped by a master builder — to see if the walls are straight or crooked. I check my emotional life with music, my intellectual life with writing, but religion is where I soul-search.
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much fruit for this soul-searching other than some platitudes about social "justice" and "investments," rather than traditional "charity" and "alms." But in emptying "religion" of all but it's most practical aspects, Mr. Bono has effectively eradicated all traces of the transcendent from human life. Of course, there's nothing new in this--it's a view that's been held variously for over two centuries now. But then again, the last two centuries haven't shown us at our best, have they?
posted by timothy at 11:45 AM
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