Beautiful Songs About Difficult Things - A Conversation with John Swinton

As I was preparing for the conversation with John Swinton that you are about to hear, I was reminded of a quote from one of Jacques Ellul’s first books, 'Presence in the Modern World,' published in 1948. There, Ellul writes “we no longer know where we are heading. We have forgotten our common purposes, we have enormous means at our disposal, and we put into operation prodigious machines in order to arrive nowhere.”

77 years later, Ellul’s reflections remain accurate, and someone like John offers antidotes to the destructive aimlessness that ails many of us. In a world where power, speed, and wealth dangerously tend towards domination and movement towards no definitive end (or ends), John gently and prophetically welcomes us into a world where kindness, contemplation, friendship, and slowing down are means that get us to the interrelated ends of loving God, neighbour, and self.

What you may not expect about what’s ahead, is that our conversation revolves around music as much as it does John’s scholarly work. For, just as John is an accomplished writer and speaker, he’s also a serious songwriter and singer—with the rock and roll history, and his recently released album, to prove it. The album is called Beautiful Songs About Difficult Things, and in that sense, its title represents a lot of the ground we cover in this conversation, and a lot of the ground John covers in his work.

Bio

John Swinton is professor of practical theology and pastoral care at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and founding director of Aberdeen’s Centre for Spirituality, Health, and Disability. He worked as a nurse for sixteen year within the fields of mental health and learning disabilities and later also as a community mental health chaplain. He’s also an accomplished musician, who just released a full-length album titled Beautiful Songs About Difficult Things.

Notes

University of Aberdeen Faculty Page (includes list of publications): https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/j.swinton

Beautiful Songs About Difficult Things (album): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kZ5VS5M8dc5U3N_aAzTVsKV5Y0Q7EF4zY

Additional Resources

Gustavo Gutierrez, On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent: https://orbisbooks.com/products/on-job

James H. Cone, The Spirituals and The Blues: https://orbisbooks.com/products/the-spirituals-and-the-blues-50th-anniversary-edition

William Blake, Illustrations of the Book of Job: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:William_Blake's_illustrations_of_the_Book_of_Job

Kosuke Koyama, Three Mile an Hour God: https://scmpress.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9780334061472/three-mile-an-hour-god

Robert Levine, Geography of Time: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/robert-n-levine/a-geography-of-time/9780786722532/?lens=basic-books

Dreich: https://www.oed.com/dictionary/dreich_adj?tl=true