Spiritual Jukebox for a Multifaith World

popular songs can serve as a springboard for
exploratory theology, mutual understanding,
and interfaith discussions.
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This page is a spiritual jukebox: an evolving playlist for seekers, doubters, pluralists, contemplatives, believers, non-believers, and the many who are somewhere in between.  The idea for this playlist comes from Carolyn Browender, an activist and seeker living in Washington, D.C. She was raised Lutheran by a practicing Christian mother and secular Jewish father. You can also find her on Twitter.  The first songs on the playlist come from Browender, with her brief comments added, first published in Killing the Buddha.  I realize that the word "spirituality" is inviting to some and problematic for others.  I use the word to name the depth dimension of human life: the place in the heart by which people are inspired to find lasting satisfaction and become as fully alive as they can be, given the circumstances of their lives.   There are many moods, attitudes, and outlooks on life associated with this dimension.   Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat of Spirituality and Practice have developed a "spiritual alphabet" to name many of them.  I've developed another, seen on the "wheel of spirituality" below.  One thing too often neglected, at least by me, is that a person's spiritual aspirations are shaped by their social location and identity.  Thus I include the identity wheel below as well to remind us that "it all depends."  Nevertheless, it remains the case that many forms of music reveal and communicate a spiritual side to people's lives, and that we come to understand them (and ourselves) when we listen to the music that matters to them.  And it remains the case the music can be a springboard for interfaith discussions that include people who are religiously affiliated and those who are not, or Nones.  This jukebox is being enriched and deepened by a class I am teaching at Hendrix College in the Spring of 2018.  Keep coming back for more if you are interested.

​-- Jay McDaniel (January 2018)


​Spiritual Jukebox for a Multifaith World


just getting started
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An inspired arrangement of Ave Maria accompanied by the Adhan "Allah Akbar". An idea of Tania Kassis at the occasion of the designation of March 25 as National Islamo-Christian Holiday in Lebanon. (Carolyn Browender)
“It All Comes Down” – Patti Casey
A song for when you’re in an atheist/humanist kind of mood. Lovely harmonies and background vocals. (Carolyn Browender)
​“Doubting Thomas” – Nickel Creek
The title is a dead giveaway. This plaintive tune ponders what plagues many when at the crossroads of questioning the religion one was raised in. (Carolyn Browender)
Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu/Salaam”
When I studied abroad in Jerusalem for a semester, my favorite part of Hebrew lessons was learning Israeli songs. The lyrics translate to “Peace will come to us, and everyone.” I think this is a good fit for times when you’re happy about some interfaith cooperation that you took part in or witnessed. (Carolyn Browender)
"It's a challenge Stevens poses to himself, to make space for a presence that continually gets lost in the human shuffle...Tracing the confusion and the enlightenment that mourning and isolation invite, Stevens joins a handful of other artists returning solitude to the center of the musical conversation this year." Ann Powers, NPR
​“Travelin’ Thru” – Dolly Parton
No playlist is complete without Dolly’s dulcet tones. Like “Lech Lecha,” “Travelin’ Thru” is about being on a journey to find your truest self. (Carolyn Browender)
“Lech Lecha” – Stereo Sinai
My byline here at Killing the Buddha is Potluck Pilgrim. Journeying and exploration are overarching themes in my own faith journey. “Lech Lecha” tells an important story from the Jewish tradition, but I think it has resonance for those outside that particular community as well. (Carolyn Browender)
Chopin: "Fantaisie-Impromptu, Op. 66"  As played by Danil Trilonov, whom some think the most gifted young pianist in the world, Interfaith cooperation unfolds, not only through people sharing their lives and 'identities,' but in being awestruck by the excellence and beauty beyond their imaginations.
“Christians and Pagans” – Dar Williams. A common complaint about certain interfaith organizations and advocates is that they ignore key differences between religions, especially during the winter holidays. Dar Williams tells a lovely story of family members negotiating faith differences with grace and hospitality. (Carolyn Browender)
“Silence” – Matisyahu
I had the opportunity to see Matisyahu perform this live, and it felt like I was intruding on a deeply private moment. His voice has a tender, soft, almost boy-choir-esque tone in parts of this song, and his use of dynamics is masterful. Your soul might crack when he sings, “Bring my broken heart to an invisible king/With a hope one day you might answer me/So I pray don’t you abandon me, abandon me.” (Carolyn Browender)
One Day” – Matisyahu
My college church group got really into this song for a few years. It has a strong SBNR vibe to it–it feels religious but there’s only a brief mention of God, and most of the song is about hope for a better world. Easy to sing along to with a bunch of friends. (Carolyn Browender)
Lady Gaga - "What's Up"presents the sheer frustration, the anger, the rage, of people who are alienated from the cold, callous, bigoted realities of an allegedly "sane" world that is itself crazy. Gaga performs the only sand response to such insanity: pure rage. This kind of rage, too, is a shared interfaith emotion: available to theists, atheists, and the many in between.

So Where is God is all of This?
​A Panentheistic Understanding of the Jukebox

​God is a Deep Listening who hears and absorbs the voices of all living beings with a desire that they find fulfillment and joy. Whitehead calls this Listening the consequentnature of God because it emerges after, not before, the cries themselves, feeling the feelings of all in a sympathetic and tender way.  In response to what is heard, God then provides fresh possibilities (initial aims) for healing and wholeness relative to the situation at hand.  In the beginning is not the word of God.  It is the listening.

​This Listening -- the consequent nature -- has no fixed addressed.  It finds its home wherever there is cry of the heart, a longing of the soul, for a wholeness anticipated but not yet found.  As God listens, God also becomes a seeker and doubter.  God longs for the wholeness, too. That's how strong God's love is. 

​When we listen to others with a generous heart, with sympathetic ears, we are sharing in the listening as co-listeners.  Along with God, we become other than ourselves.  We become the doubter, the seeker, the pluralist; and in that becoming we find our true home.  Like God we are always and forever created by the voices of others, which then become our own in the listening.  In the beginning is not the word.  In the beginning was the listening and the love. (Jay McDaniel)

Identity Wheel

No listener is in island.  People will appreciate songs based on their social circumstances, personalities, and identities.  One song can be "right on target" for some and "irrelevant" for others.  In interfaith explorations, it is important for people to recognize the social locations from which they and others listen to the music they enjoy.  A recognition of these locations is part of the discussion.

Wheel of Spirituality

The wheel identifies eighteen moods, attitudes, and outlooks on life which are found in, and reinforced by, popular music.  All have been considered "spiritual" by one or another of the world's religions, but are likewise found in Nones: those who reject all things religious, those who are indifferent to religion, and those who are "spiritually interested but not religiiously affiliated."
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