Nearly 40 years after Bob Dylan stunned the music world with the release of his overtly Christian album, “Slow Train Coming,” followed quickly with the unambiguously gospel “Saved,” people still don’t know what to make of America’s most enigmatic troubadour. The conventional wisdom is that Dylan took an intense dive into evangelical Christianity for a couple…
1 thought on “The debate about Bob Dylan’s faith is over”
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As much as I respect Scott Marshall’s writings on Dylan’s encounter with Christianity (we respectfully disagree on its meaning), I don’t think the opinion of Carolyn Dennis cited in his book proves anything one way or the other about Dylan’s current beliefs. Dylan is often inconsistent, even contradictory, and purposefully ambiguous when he speaks about the matter. That she mentions three movies in the conversation she remembers him means only that, if accurate, only reflect how he was feeling at certain movement. And liking a movie is not a declaration of faith. It may just be one more example of how Dylan enjoys playing with people’s minds.
Being taken with the “figure of Jesus” doesn’t mean he believes Jesus was divine rather than “only” an extraordinary human being. His friend Leonard Cohen also was also impressed with the life of Jesus but remained a Jew. He was quick to point out that he didn’t worship Jesus, although he was moved by his human example. Perhaps will have to wait until Dylan’s inevitable passing when we will learn if Bob is buried with full Jewish rites as Leonard was.
I look forward to reading what Scott has to say about Dylan’s well-known admiration of Chabad. Dylan has frequently been sighted at Chabad events and religious observances over the past 30-some years, including a recent Yom Kippur service where he was called to the Torah, something that would never be sanctioned by a Chabad rabbi if Chabad still considered him an apostate. Dylan hasn’t worshiped with the Vineyard Fellowship in decades. Nor has he ever been known to attend a so-called messianic church.
Perhaps he expressed his true point of view when he told Spin Magazine in 1985 that “Whether you believe Jesus Christ is the Messiah is irrelevant, but whether you’re aware of the messianic complex, that’s … important … People who believe in the coming of the Messiah live their lives right now, as if he was here …”
What believing Christian would ever say that “Whether you believe Jesus Christ is the Messiah is irrelevant”? His ambiguity remains. Perhaps we will learn more when his lifelong friend, Louis Kemp’s forthcoming book (written with a little help from Kinky Friedman), The Boys from the North Country: my life with Robert Zimmerman & Bob Dylan, is published. Kemp remains one of Dylan’s closest and most trusted friends and has indicated Bob is fine with the book. Kemp is an Orthodox Jew and davens with Chabad, as does his son-in-law, singer-songwriter Peter Himmelman.
I am leaving out quite a bit since I don’t have time to write more tonight. Let me end here: There is a very detailed record of Dylan’s involvement with Kemp and the Chabad of Pacific Palisades community. When the song & dance man shuffles off the mortal coil, I am guessing that all our questions will be answered.