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What is a particular creative piece -- a work of art, a book, a movie, a song, a performance, anything -- that has a religious theme or overtones, and yet you can't help but like it or even love it?

I'm thinking of this because on Easter Sunday there will be a live broadcast of Jesus Christ Superstar with a pretty cool cast. Being raised Jewish and being an agnostic, one would think I'd get myself far away from this. But this show has one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's best scores and awesome songs, I've liked it for years, and I'm very much looking forward to the broadcast.

bleurowz 8 Mar 18
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jewish atheist here and look what i listen to:

g

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The Divine Comedy- Dante

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I LOVE The Lord of the Rings, both the books and the movies. Tolkien was a huge Christian and there is Christian symbolism throughout the works, but that does not deter me from loving them.

Agree

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The song the Prayer, but only the version by Chloe Agnew of Celtic Women.

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Gospel music by Mahalia Jackson

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A very large part of the music I listen to every day is religious since I am a Baroque and early music fan and the composers of those periods didn't have a lot of choice.

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The great divorce by cs lewis

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Some of the gorgeous, non-religious new music:

"Joep Franssens (b. 1955) composes out of a profound connectedness with nature and his fellow man." [joepfranssens.com]
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"Shine" by Collective Soul.

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I also love the choral music of John Tavener. Here's a link to his rendition of the Lord's Prayer which is just exquisite.

That whole album is gorgeous especially "The Bridegroom" which follows; I often like to fall asleep to it. As Nietzsche said, "Without music, life would be a mistake." I feel that music itself grants the harmony that humanity looks for in religion.
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I love Jesus Christ Superstar! 🙂 especially this version where the Indigo Girls play Jesus and Mary.

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Everything by Sufjan Stevens. Pretty sure he's very Christian, but I cannot live without his music.

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All of Bach and Mozart’s liturgical music. I don’t care that the purpose or lyrical content is religious. The artists had to eat and we know who had the money. The holy benefactors. The music stands on its own in my view. For me, there are only 2 kinds of music. Good and bad, in every genre.

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I don't know if this counts but I love the tomb of the unknown warrior in Westminster Abbey on poppy day it is covered in red poppies and I always try to get someone to put some white peace poppies on it for me buying them from the Peace Pledge Union - They always get picked up and thrown out but they stay awhile.

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Love this song. But the singer refers to "him", a veiled reference to Jesus I'm pretty certain, as he eventually became born again. The lines between 2:50-3:09 show great humanity & warmth.

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Schubert's Ave Maria.

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Not into the myth either but it does explore human traits and longings and failings more than most things about the character.

More relateable than the perfect boy/man/god who never ever sinned or had sex.

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Dogma. Even though it is completely ridiculous I much enjoyed it.
Life the Universe and Everything bookset. Though really only touching on any religion very marginally.
Exorcist - because holyshitOMG...nononono

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Saint Matthew's Passion, and all J.S. Bach music. It truly makes me feel that there is a divine spirit who inspired his music.

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To quote Tim Minchin, "Some of the songs that they sing have nice chords, but the lyrics are dodgy."

I love a lot of religious music, architecture, art, etc. Cause here's the thing. I think believing is a bit silly, but one can't understate that some people do pour their heart into faith sometimes and the results can be beautiful.

Something doesn't have to be TRUE, to be beautiful. Consider any great work of fiction.

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I know one thing that has religious overtones that I still find very interesting is the architecture of church buildings. I guess it still remains with me from the time when I was a christian. I just love looking at old church buildings and also the different modern church designs. One church I enjoy visiting is the National Cathedral.

My favorite church is Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC. It's awe-inspiring.

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I sing in a large concert choir, and we do the old masters - Mozart, Brahms, Verdi, Faure (etc) requiems, Beethoven's Ode to Joy & Missa Solemnis, many Glorias, Stabat Maters, and Magnificats, many Bach cantatas and several Passions. It is about the music, always. The patrons who attend our concerts are not necessarily there for a religious experience - at this point, most of these works are "art" - we create music to create beauty against today's darkness (to paraphrase Leonard Bernstein, who himself wrote a beautiful Mass that is just glorious). Our choir has many different religious viewpoints represented: Buddhist, Jewish, Xian, agnostic, atheist. We come together for community and song.

Sounds lovely. And Leonard Bernstein, a nice Jewish boy, wrote a mass? Awesome.

@bleurowz He did indeed! You'll find numerous versions of it, along with another beautiful work, his Chichester Psalms, on YouTube.

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I love the songs "Hallelujah" and "Amazing Grace".

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A lot of Beethoven, for example. A Love Supreme by Coltrane. 10,000 Days by Tool. A lot of churches have amazing architecture.

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Hieronymus Bosch's "The Last Judgement." When I first saw it around age 10-11 I was amazed, shocked, frightened and drawn to it. I didn't know who did it, or the title, but whenever I saw prints of it or in books, I would just look at single figures, then sections of it, and the the whole thing (repeat). I found out about 5 years ago the title and artist. Fast foward to a 2 years ago.... 2 week trip to Europe highlighted by a river cruise. By the end, I was sick as a dog, but we still had 3 days I n Vienna and 4 hours before we could check in to our hotel. Randomly picked a museum to check out to burn up some time.. smal museum, but some cool old art but I'm fading fast..stumble into the last room running on fumes... BINGO! There it was, right in front of me. Stayed there for 45 minutes taking it in.. would've been longer but The Boss was sick, too and wasn't invigorated. As close to a "religous moment" I've ever experienced.

MikaB Level 5 Mar 18, 2018

I love when that happens. I had that experience with Van Gogh's "Starry Night" - not a religious piece, but that experience of coming across a favorite work of art in person. Saw it at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and was just blown away.

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