Johnny Cash and the Prophetic Imagination

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Johnny Cash a n d

t h e

P r o p h e t i c

I m a g i n at i o n

Considering an American icon through the theological lens of Walter Brueggemann b y T ony Blair

Cash’s role as both representative and critic of American Christianity was recently explored in book-length form by Rodney Clapp in Johnny Cash and the Great American Contradiction: Christianity and the Battle for a Soul of a Nation (Westminster, 2008). In it he says,

I’ve been listening to Johnny Cash with fascination ever since I became a fan at the tail end of his career. Growing up, I was aware of him, mostly as a television performer, but didn’t truly discover his work and heart before delving into his startling American Recordings albums, released over the last 10 years of his life. While Cash possessed a deep faith in Christ, he was a sinner of biblical proportions, with a spiritual journey as winding and rutted as King David’s. And while he sinned like an Old Testament king, he also railed like an Old Testament prophet. Cash called the American church to be more than and different from what it was; although he died in 2003 at the age of 71, that call continues to resonate.

In cultural terms Cash became as big as he was because he tapped into something bigger than music. There was something about his presence, about how he said and sang things, about his authenticity and humility, about his story and how he lived it that connected with multiple generations of people

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Andrew Hench

ery few figures in recent history are seen as more repV resentative of American identity than Cash. His music was included in a space capsule the USA shot into outer space. He played Abraham Lincoln in a television miniseries and was a major player in the celebration of the country’s bicentennial. His has often been suggested as the face that should be added to the select pantheon on Mt. Rushmore. But in addition to his profound Americanness, the late and still celebrated country singer and songwriter, in his life and work, provides several lamps to shine into the neglected, shadowy twists and crevices of the caverns of America’s current religious, cultural, and political predicaments.


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