Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life

by Scott Marshall

Never before has a book like this one delved into the spiritual odyssey of cultural icon Bob Dylan. Tracking an American original―from his Jewish roots to his controversial embrace of Jesus to his enduring legacy as the composer of the Tempest album― Bob A Spiritual Life delivers the story of a man in dogged pursuit of redemption. Based on years of research and original interviews, this book sorts through the myths and misunderstandings and reveals Dylan to be both traditional and radical in the way he expresses his spiritual quest for purpose and meaning. "Call Dylan whatever you want, but the name won’t stick," said foreword writer and film director Scott Derrickson. "What does stick is his music, in part because his songs contain a deep, abiding spirituality that moves listeners like me more than the songs of any other artist." Bob A Spiritual Life bridges the gap between purpose and meaning in grand fashion. It offers readers an informative, entertaining, and nuanced look into Bob Dylan’s spiritual odyssey. Today, there is not a Dylan book in existence that exclusively focuses on his spiritual odyssey through years of research and original interviews with those who know him and his journey well, such as Barry Beckett, Arthur Blessit, T-Bone Burnett, Carolyn Dennis, Dave Kelly, Regina McCrary, Maria Muldaur, Scott Ross, Jerry Wexler, and Paul Wasserman. The evidence abounds and Dylan's friends and fans provide a plethora of insight into this veritable music icon's spiritual side.

“I’ve had a God-given sense of destiny," said Dylan in 2001. "This is what I was put on earth to do.”

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Religion, Memoir, Biography Memoir, Pop Culture

304 pages, Hardcover

Published December 19, 2017

About the author

Born in the Summer of Love in Gainesville, Florida, Marshall graduated high school in 1985, college in 1997 (counseling skills), and graduate school (journalism) in 2002.

Along the way, he held posts as a carpenter's gofer, lawn-mower, pizza delivery driver, custodian, teen group home leader, and cashier.

He backed into the field of teaching--and has taught 13 years of college (both at private and public schools), mainly communication, journalism, and public speaking. He currently moves, lives, and has his being while teaching in Cleveland, GA, home of the Cabbage Patch Doll. Marshall hopes to have his next manuscript published by spring 2017.

He lives with his wife Amy, a therapist, in Toccoa, Georgia. His original family--dad, mom, and two sisters, Southerners all--can be found in St. Augustine, FL; Valle Crucis, NC; Huntsville, AL, and Asheville, NC.

Reviews

[Jeff Crosby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly, Scott Marshall knows Bob Dylan. And the book is beautifully designed.

But the bulk of "Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life" seems like a defense that Dylan's conversion (circa 1978/79) to Christianity was 'real' and that he didn't 'walk away' from that faith so fervently espoused for the first time on the 1979 Columbia Records release "Slow Train Coming" and later that fall at a series of Warfield Theater concerts in San Francisco that had one writer (Paul Williams) scratching his head and asking in a book, "Bob Dylan - What Happened?"

Marshall gets to this defense by mining each and every "rap" at a concert, each and every appearance of "In the Garden" or "Solid Rock" (from "Saved") or "Gotta Serve Somebody" (from "Slow Train Coming") at concerts in the years since the so-called trilogy of "gospel albums" (1979-1981) were released. The overall effect is one of repetitiveness. Even I (a hard-core Dylan listener and reader not put off by the so-called "gospel years") was challenged to slog through the entire book.

Additionally, the book is made up primarily of extended quotes from concerts, reviews, interviews, other books and secondary resources. A few original interviews that Marshall conducted with people such as T. Bone Burnett stand out as the truly new aspects of "Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life."

The book is an amazing amalgamation of information since the earliest record (and concerts in Greenwich Village) in 1962 up to the present day. It would have been served by having a writer/editor work with him, as Marshall did in his earlier book on Dylan, "Restless Pilgrim" (2002, Relevant Books, written with Marcia Ford).

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scott Marshall's book: Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life probes into the artist's evolving beliefs, which at times put him at odds with fans and critics alike. Dylan's music catalog, in various stages, has touched nearly all demographics, including atheists, agnostics, Jews, and Christians. When he began writing Jesus songs, many once loyal fans grumbled and leaped off the bandwagon of Dylan's relentless recording and touring. Dylan, the artist, even received death threats, which he ignored while placing his faith and security in the watch of God.

The mysterious and quiet Dylan, through interchangeable years, both attended synagogues and recorded Christian songs. More a refreshing artist than an elusive one, Dylan lets his songs speak for him. Criticism does not deter his pursuit of art as evidenced when he made detractors while he embraced electric music, then Christian music, and most recently singing cover songs of the Great American Song Book. Seems Dylan has faith in his artistic instincts that profess his interests and beliefs.

Dylan's friends have included: atheists, agnostics, Jews, and Christians; whereas, Dylan is tolerant of them all while he adheres to his own beliefs. This vantage point reaffirms the bond of friendship with the aforementioned different perspectives that populate my own life. Whether skeptic or devout, I am tolerant of all beliefs. The world needs such an outlook. Getting to know Bob Dylan's spirituality opens up an inclusive world where individuals are free to pursue personal quests through life in any avenue that fulfills them, much like Dylan's personal and expressive artistry.

[Robert Gluck · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the first half of this book helpful and informative. Marshall provides a detailed look at Dylan's spiritual evolution that led to his born again Christian phase 1979-1981. He makes it clear that Dylan was sincere in his beliefs.

But Marshall then spends the rest of the book trying to demonstrate that Dylan retained his faith in Jesus over the ensuing decades. Marshall does this by recounting in mind numbing detail all of the times Dylan performed his Christian songs or covered gospel songs in his concerts. He finds references in interviews with Dylan it with people who know Dylan that he thinks provides evidence of Christian leanings. It felt to me that Marshall grows more and more desperate to found any clue of Dylan's continued belief in Jesus as savior.

I can heartily recommend the first half of this book; you can skip the second half or just skip it completely.

[Travis Agnew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This overview of Dylan's spiritual life was an intriguing read and unpacked things I never knew about the legendary songwriter.

[Wes F · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read that really did focus on Dylan's spiritual life--both up to & including his conversion to faith in Christ, as well as his spiritual life since those days in 1978/9. Marshall points out how Dylan has consistently maintained his beliefs in the whole Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He does a good job of including Dylan's public statements in interviews, in live performances, and in his continued peerless body of music. I wish he had been a bit more clear or forthright on the non-contradiction of Dylan being a Jew & a believer in the Messiah; it's called being a Messianic Jew who remains Jewish, but has seen that Jesus is the long hoped-for Messiah & Savior who has already come. He gives plenty examples of how the two are not in contradiction, though could have been more explicit in explaining & clarifying this. It really is amazing how consistently Dylan has made clear that he continues to believe that the blood of the Lamb is what has saved him.

[Larry Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did you write The Book of Love
And do you have faith in God above?
Do you believe in rock and roll
Can music save your mortal soul
And can you teach me how to dance, real slow?


This book purportedly sets out to tell us where Bob Dylan is spiritually. Pages and pages of words, more than a hundred footnotes, all with the aim of discovering whether Dylan is (still) a Christian or not. Isn’t it ironic then, that the first sentence in the preface to the book is this one: “Bob Dylan will not be labelled.”
Maybe “ironic” is not the right word. Maybe a better word is “paradoxical.” We Christians know that one quite well. Something seemingly contradictory, but finally not so; demanding closer scrutiny and holding within its apparent mystery some deeper truth that we might never have gotten to any other way. For example, we are “in the world, but not of the world,” and we say of Christ that He is “fully man and fully God.”
But whether you call the first sentence in this book ironic or paradoxical, anyone who knows anything about Dylan would have to say this about it: it is a huge understatement. Dylan has spent his six decades in the public eye doing everything possible to stay out of every category that the world has tried to put him in. The first and perhaps most famous of these escapes was in the mid-sixties when he traded in his Martin acoustic guitar for a Fender Stratocaster, turned it up to eleven, and blasted electric blues at the Monterey Pop Festival. His purist-folkie fans could not believe it – that their idol had broken trust with them, broken all the rules and sided with those impure and juvenile rock and rollers. How could this be? He would never survive this, so they said.
From then on it was one unpredictable turn after another. Within one or two records after Monterey he was full-on country, paling around with Johnny Cash and using steel guitar in his new songs.
But the greatest shift of all, by almost anyone’s measure, was in the late 1970s, when Dylan confessed to a profound experience with Jesus Christ and professed his own, personal faith in Him as savior and Lord; as, indeed, the Son of God, the Messiah.
What a shock. This iconoclast, this spokesman for the counterculture, had embraced Christ. Many, perhaps most, of his fans saw this as treason. Bob, they believed, stood for, well, everything they wanted him to stand for: free love, the tearing down of the “establishment,” the breaking free from all things religious. And weren’t those people he had aligned himself with just the same people who had eschewed if not his music then at least everything we believed his music implied or stood for. How could this be? He would never survive this, so they said.
In fact it became a minor and diverse industry to somehow divorce “our” Bob Dylan from his profession of faith in Christ and from the catalogue of songs he wrote, recorded and sang for the next few years.
These new songs were not warm and fuzzy. They were not of the ‘let me suggest that you try to be good’ variety. No, these new songs were preaching. They were a presentation of the gospel and personally confrontational. Dylan telling his audiences of the rich and famous and privileged and those who had bought in to the modern idea that all things were relative and that there was no such thing as absolute truth and that the self was the final arbiter, that these very ideas, precious to them, were “earthly principles they’re gonna have to abandon.” His rhetoric was straight out of a tent meeting. He told his listeners that they were not self-sufficient and that they could not hide in any identity or any circumstance:
You may be an ambassador to England or France
You might like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite, with a long string of pearls
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

And it wasn’t only the songs. They were straightforward enough, but for a couple of years there, Dylan actually preached the Gospel to his concert crowds between numbers. He refused to play the old hits that so many of the ticket-buyers had come to hear and actually went on long raps about Jesus the Messiah and His coming again.

This raised the hackles not only of his hip fans, it did not sit well with his family. Bob Dylan, Robert Zimmerman to them, was born and raised a Jew and all this talk about Jesus was, to put it mildly, strange to them. One of Dylan’s aunts, Ethel Crystal, told an interviewer that she thought the “whole gospel thing” was “done for publicity.”
Hoo-boy. For “publicity?” He turns against everything his fans thought and hoped that he stood for, angers and disappoints concert-goers, has his concert promoters and record producers ready to drop him and this is for publicity?
I can believe a lot of things about Bob Dylan, not all of them flattering, but I can’t believe that.
And it is here that we get to one of the interesting and well-developed themes in the book: the tension between Dylan’s Christian confession and his Jewish heritage.
First, a bit of disclosure here. I am a Christian. I was thrilled with Dylan’s profession of Christ, bought all three of the “gospel” records, and attended a concert in Charleston WV in February of 1980. Dylan’s conversion could not have been better timed for me. I had always been a Dylan fan and in 1980 I was twenty-eight years old and finding out a bit about the real world and learning that the faith I had been raised in was really a matter of life and death. I loved these songs then and I still love them now. In fact, while I was reading this book I went back and watched videos of his performances during these years. I was ever more impressed by what Dylan did. When he tells the Grammy Awards crowd –every rich, self-satisfied, and famous one of them – that they’ve gotta serve somebody, well, that does something for me.
A bit more about me. My life in the church has never included anything even approaching prejudice against or hatred of Jews. In fact, I have a hard time understanding Anti-Semitism, given my personal experience with those who claim lineage from Abraham. I have found them to be the most responsible of citizens, family conscious, hard-working and caring people. And when I was taught the Bible I was instructed that almost all of it – save the Books of Luke and Acts – was written by Jews. Jesus is a Jew – a direct descendent of King David - and his Bible was the Old Testament – the Torah and the Psalms and the Prophets. I feel almost ridiculous having to say this – it all seems so obvious to me. But in the book – in this book, I mean, not The Book – the strange divide between Christians and Jews is highlighted.
Scott Marshall quotes Ruth Rosen, the daughter of Moishe Rosen, the founder of Jews for Jesus, on this issue:
For the majority of Jews, the New Testament is a closed and unfamiliar book because it is identified with the age-long persecution of the Jewish people in the name of Christianity. Because most Jews believe that the New Testament promotes anti-Semitism, they think there could be nothing in it which would sustain Jewish life and values. Thus, the common Jewish assessment of the New Testament is formed by a preconditioned impression. In many ways, Jewish experience seems to support this assessment. However, the majority of Jewish people do not feel inclined to verify the assessment by an investigation of the New Testament itself . . .
I have seen it both ways. In conversations with two Jewish friends, both of them Ivy-League educated and both deeply schooled in the traditions of their elders, I found one who had read and understood the New Testament and who, to my complete shock, said this: “Oh, I believe that Jesus is the Messiah, all right. It’s just all that Catholic voodoo I can’t get around.”
The other was surprised when in the course of a conversation I mentioned that a great deal of the New Testament consists of letters that were dashed off by one Apostle or another to churches or fellow-workers in the faith during the first century. That the New Testament was so constituted seemed a surprise.
What’s the point of all of this? Well, when one considers the question of Bob Dylan’s faith, one must come to the matter with the knowledge that this issue is, to say the very least, a hot button in Jewish circles. Scott Marshall comments that a change from the faith to atheism would be more tolerated and accepted in Jewish communities that a conversion to Christianity. There is, accordingly, a lot of bias and interest involved on both sides of the question. Christians, like me, who want to believe that Dylan’s confession was sincere and permanent and others who want to see the matter as a “phase” that their own favorite son soon “got over.”





So, we have a three-way tug-of-war going on here, with the Christian Dylan fans, like me, pulling one way – i.e. Dylan’s experience with Jesus Christ was a real, actual event (Dylan himself described it as “knee buckling”) and his gospel songs were not motivated by a desire for publicity but are authentic expressions of a converted soul, of a man who has met the Lord and, despite his open sympathy for the Hebrew community, of which he and his children are inseparably a part, and in spite of Dylan’s more recent writing that is less directly concerned with the Gospel and in spite of any crazy, excessive behavior Dylan may have engaged in since that time, he has never disavowed his confession of the Lordship of Jesus Christ and never disavowed a word of the songs he wrote as a result of that experience;
Secular fans pulling another way – that Dylan’s “gospel period” was just an emotional phase, not untypical for artistic types, but it has no spiritual or lasting reality and though Dylan himself has not directly and expressly disavowed his experience with Christ, such a disavowal can be fairly inferred from Dylan’s downplay of his gospel songs in recent concerts, his open participation in Jewish rituals and his rock-star behavior.
(Let me be clear about that last thing. Marshall’s book hints that there are rumors of Dylan doing the kind of drinking and womanizing lately that we’ve come to expect of musicians while on the road. The book does not detail or suggest any support for such rumors and I am not here implying that there is any truth to it. All I am saying is that if such rumors are out there, it is a cinch that this tug-of-war team will use them to establish their case.)
The third team in this battle is, of course, Dylan’s Jewish buddies and fans. The book tells that Elie Wiesel viewed Dylan’s conversion as “a tragedy” and that Paul Shaffer, the long-time music director for the David Letterman Show, admitted that he was brokenhearted by the news of Dylan’s confession. This group sees Dylan as one of their own; one of their very best. Dylan’s embrace of Christ is at best a kind of family embarrassment to them and at worst a real collaboration, by a former hero, with a deadly enemy. This group will repeat almost all of the arguments made by the secularists as described above and add great emphasis to the evidence of Dylan’s attendance at bar mitzvahs and other Jewish celebrations and his involvement with the Lubavitchers, an Orthodox Jewish group.
It is the goal of Marshall’s book to sort it all out.
By now you are aware of this writer’s bias and interest in the matter. Nonetheless, let me try to give you some outline of the story.
First, the case for Dylan’s rabid interest in the Bible is unassailable. Whether you buy the Christian conversion business or not, it is simply undeniable that a kind of Biblical, monotheistic and moral worldview has been a fundamental part of Dylan’s philosophy and writing from the very start of his career. The book does a good job of making this case.

So Bob Dylan studied with the Lubavitchers, attended his son’s bar mitzvah, visited the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and has been seen on occasion in one synagogue or another on one Jewish Holy Day or another. Does all or any of that undercut the notion that Dylan believes the New Testament? Believes that Jesus is the Christ?
At first glance, we might be tempted to say that it does. The New Testament tells that adherence to the Jewish ritual law is no longer necessary. Salvation does not lie in the keeping of the law, but in the finished work of Jesus Christ. We don’t merit salvation. No man is justified by the keeping of the ritual law. Someone will argue that Dylan’s actions here all point to an opposite conviction and a return to Jewish practice and to the Jewish faith. He is participating in those very rituals that the New Testament rejects. How can he be Christian?
Well, let’s try to think of some other examples that we might compare Mr. Dylan’s conduct to. Who are some other Jews who met Jesus, and how did they handle their allegiances – familial and communal – when it came to the old rituals and practices?
Oh, here’s one! Saint Peter! What a convenient example! He, like all the rest of the Apostles, was a Jew and we can be as sure of his belief in Christ as we are of anything. The New Testament, which chronicles Peter’s discipleship at the feet of Jesus Christ is, far and away the most reliable historical source out of the ancient world. If we would doubt the accuracy of the New Testament, we’d have to ignore every other source of ancient history. The evidence supporting the accounts in the Biblical Gospels is overwhelmingly stronger than that supporting any other ancient source. In other words, the evidence for Peter’s discipleship ( and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, for that matter) is far, far stronger than the evidence that there ever was a Battle of Thermopylae.
So, yes, Peter was a Jew who met Jesus and became His disciple. He witnessed the resurrected Christ and ate fish with Him on a beach in Palestine. He believed. He, accordingly, was free from the requirements of the ritual law. His faith in Christ was so strong that he suffered martyrdom. Tradition – not the New Testament – tells us that he chose to be crucified upside down because he did not deserve the same death as his master Jesus Christ.
But the Bible tells us clearly that there was a time when old Peter himself continued to observe the old Jewish ritual laws. Here is how the Apostle Paul tells the story:

Galatians 2: 11 -13 (The Message)
Later, when Peter came to Antioch, I had a face-to-face confrontation with him because he was clearly out of line. Here’s the situation. Earlier, before certain persons had come from James, Peter regularly ate with the non-Jews. But when that conservative group came from Jerusalem, he cautiously pulled back and put as much distance as he could manage between himself and his non-Jewish friends. That’s how fearful he was of the conservative Jewish clique that’s been pushing the old system of circumcision. Unfortunately, the rest of the Jews in the Antioch church joined in that hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was swept along in the charade.

How about that? Why was it that Peter reverted to observance of Jewish ritual? To hear Paul tell it it was because of the pressure put on Peter by other Jews. We must accept this at face value if we credit the scriptures as authoritative, but what might Peter have said about this business?
Would he have said that he lost his mind and forgot the saving work of Christ and decided it was the best thing for him to go back to the same systems of rituals he kept before meeting Jesus? Did his pulling back here mean that he was not a Christian? Or might Peter have said something more along the lines of this “I’ve known these guys for a long time. I don’t see the rituals as a means of salvation, but the old rituals are cultural and communal ties among us old friends. I did what I did to avoid offending them.”
Again, I am not arguing against Paul’s stance here or his final analysis of the situation. I’m just saying that there are such things as communal and cultural ties and there is some value in keeping the peace with one’s neighbors to the extent that you can. Again, I’m not saying that Peter was right to do what he did. I’m just saying that, you know, this kind of thing is understandable. And maybe more understandable for Dylan than for Saint Peter.
Dylan’s son is Hebrew by birth. A bar mitzvah is a part of the culture that surrounds him. In fact, part of the culture that Dylan himself embraced or at least participated in until his conversion. How could Dylan refuse to take part in or at least acknowledge the significance of this ritual? Would Jesus have demanded that?
And let’s look at Paul himself. In the Book of Acts we see him “purifying himself” before entering the Temple in Jerusalem: “. . . and he went into the temple to give notice of the time when the days of purification would be completed – the time, that is to say, when the sacrifice could be offered for each one of [the men].” Acts 21: 25-26
I don’t for a minute pretend to know all that was going on here in this passage, but it seems a very safe bet to me that Paul submitted himself to Jewish rituals – you know, “the Law” that he jumped all over Peter for observing - for the very purpose of keeping the peace among believing Jews. The distinction, I guess, is that Paul did what he did among Jews and out of the hearing of the Gentiles. But the point for now is that observance of Jewish ritual by Jews is not an indication of unbelief! It is not inconsistent with faith in Christ.
Dylan’s observances, it seems to me, are more like those of Paul than those of Peter’s. That is, they are done within the Jewish community and culture alone, outside the hearing, as it were, of the Gentiles. Bob could be keeping the peace; assuring his blood tribe that he hasn’t forgotten himself or the heritage of his people. He has not removed himself from their culture and community.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand

Bob Dylan, “The Times They Are a’Changing”

The book is very right to address the question “Is Bob Dylan a Christian or a Jew?” since that is how so many people see the issue. But, as the book explains, it is the wrong question or at least not the real or final question. Of course, Bob Dylan is a Jew. He is a Jew in the same way that Lebron James is African-American. By birth and also by what we in Appalachia call “his raisin.’” So was the Apostle Paul. So were all of the twelve Apostles, and so was Jesus. So what?
When confronted with what the questioner apparently saw as a contradiction between his mid-60s visit to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and his later gospel songs, Dylan answered rightly, and in accordance with the scriptures. His answer was, more or less: I don’t see any contradiction. To me it’s all one thing.

[Alex Kearney · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In one of the most telling statements to his public, he offered up this bitter pill to the crowd in Omaha: 'Years ago they used to say I was a prophet. I'd say, 'No I'm not a prophet.' They'd say 'Yes, you are a prophet.' 'No, it's not me.' They used to convince me I was a prophet. Now I come out and say, 'Jesus is the answer,' and now they say, 'Bob Dylan? He's no prophet.' They just can't handle that.'"

So, as I read Walter Isaacson's biography on Steve Jobs, Bob Dylan's name kept coming up as a hero of both Jobs and Steve Wozniak. I decided to give Dylan a listen, since I couldn't think of a one single song by him that I knew. I've been hooked ever since.

Most of this biography covers the tension between Dylan's Jewish roots and his Christian confession beginning in the late 70's. People could not understand how a Jew could become a Christian (in spite of that being how Christianity began in the first place).

As I've listened to some Dylan interviews, I've noticed he's been very opposed to what he calls "organized religion," instead favoring a simple life of following Jesus. That's a problematic perspective if it leads to isolation from local churches, but some stories in this book helped me understand his angle better. Take this one for example, told by his assistant Dave Kelly:

"[Dylan speaking:]'Why don't we have the church groups sit outside, stand outside, and some of them we give free tickets, but mainly we want them out there when we finish so they can talk to people and recruit them for their denomination and we can give them all a fair share.' So I said, 'Okay but churches don't quite work like that.' And he said, 'How many are there?' I said there's probably at least fourteen major denominations, and he said, 'Well, give each one of them a night, each church gets their own night.' So it was like, give the Baptists Monday, give the Presbyterians Tuesday, give the Pentecostals Wednesday, etcetera etcetera. So I called them up and I got through to several churches—I talked to a Pentecostal church, a Baptist church, a Presbyterian church, and I think a Lutheran church, and none of them wanted to do it if any of the others were going to be doing it. That was the most common thing. I think it was the Pentecostal church, the Assembly of God in San Francisco, and the first thing out of their mouth was, 'Well, isn't Dylan going to be here for two weeks?' I said yes and they asked, 'So who's doing the other nights?' and I told them the other denominations: 'Oh, oh, well no, I think we'll just pass on that, but thank you very much.' And none of them wanted to do it unless they were the only ones doing it; they didn't want to have just one night, they didn't want to share with other churches. It was a terrible testimony to Dylan. It was devastating to him, really; he was disgusted by it. He could not believe that they would really think like that because that's so un-Christian. He couldn't believe they would leave these kids unattended because of their ego or their own sense that they were right and those other guys were wrong. It was the clearest I've seen of denominational separation, of how deadly it is. I had seen a bit of it before, but I'd never seen as much as that—it was really bad. And so, you know, the half of it was, instead, every cult that ever made San Francisco it's base (and most cults have made San Francisco their base) had their groups standing outside. I mean, they were going to be there anyway I'm sure, but there were no Christian groups out there."

Also:

"Dave Kelly remembered some of the disappointments that came with the territory, even Christian territory: 'I think Bob was let down by the church all over. I think it started with the churches not wanting to support the concerts in San Francisco. I think it was then followed by an article that came out where someone was interviewed and one of these big Christian bookstore chains said they were not going to stock his records until they were absolutely convinced he was a real Christian, because they didn't think he was. It was really shocking. And that was something he actually read; that wasn't something someone told him about. He read it to me himself and showed it to me."

Dylan has reminded me a lot of Kanye West: a high-profile musical artist who started confessing Christ and received lots of skepticism, especially from the church. It seems to me that Dylan was genuine in his conversion, and I can only hope the same for Kanye.

A few more interesting quotes:

"For a season, Dylan was among the fifty or sixty people who attended this Vineyard church in Malibu California. Dylan also briefly attended the much larger, original Vineyard church until press reports prompted some 'fans' to show up for worship service, ulterior motives in tow. 'I knew Dylan and interacted with him and taught the Bible to him, but I do not claim any sort of credit for his faith, however, I have no doubt in my mind that he was sincere' Bodwick said. 'He was a sincere and honest seeker trying to understand and learn. What struck me about him was how deeply interested he was; my only frustration was keeping up with his questions. I'd go for five to six subjects each week—an Old Testament book like Isaiah twenty-eight—and he would've read ahead to like chapter forty-three."

"He would not join the ranks of the reverend Jerry Falwell-inspired Moral Majority, he would not pay a visit to the television studio of reverend Pat Robertson's 700 Club, and he would endorse neither president Jimmy Carter, who professed to being a born-again Christian, nor the soon-to-be president Ronald Reagan, who enticed many born-again voters with various pledges. Journalist Dan Wooding, when interviewed for A&E's biography on Dylan, made this observation: 'Here was Bob Dylan, who was the main representative of the counter-culture, in the eyes of his fans selling out to the religious right (which he never did). He accepted Jesus as Messiah, but he didn't join the religious right. He still was very much a prophet, a revolutionary."

[Craig Amason · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always considered Bob Dylan to be the folk poet of his generation, a gifted songwriter if not a very good singer. Having been raised in an evangelical protestant denomination in the South, I and many of my friends knew it was big news when Dylan reportedly "converted" to Christianity. We were proud to sing along with "Gotta Serve Somebody" because it was cool to have a pop icon in our tribe. I did not know at the time he was raised Jewish, which would have made the conversion perhaps less drastic in my mind. I can imagine his Jewish friends and family were a bit more shocked than I was.

Dylan was not a performer I followed closely in my younger years, but I grew to appreciate his talents more in 1983 with the release of the Infidels album, especially the tract titled "Jokerman" because of the many Biblical references I recognized. I had recently finished an undergraduate degree in English where I was immersed in the works of Flannery O'Connor, so I was particularly attracted to art forms with Christian symbolism or themes. I was not aware that many critics considered this album to be a return for Dylan to his traditional roots and away from the strong Christian influences of the two preceding albums.

Marshall's book reveals that Dylan's embrace of Christianity was far more complicated and nuanced than the typical religious conversion. Like a minority of people worldwide who identify as Jews but also recognize Jesus as the Messiah, Dylan saw no conflict between Judaism and Christianity. The two were more like a continuum for him, with more to link them together than to separate them. In interviews and statements, Dylan repeatedly and unapologetically acknowledged the divinity of Jesus. What I didn't realize was how often and for how long he included his Christian-based songs in his live shows.

To call Dylan a disciple is a stretch. He could be contradictory at times in his public comments about Christianity, the Church, and clergy. One consistent message throughout his life has been the central role of music for him personally. It's as if music is the lens through which he sees and experiences everything, including faith. For instance, when asked what he thought about Billy Graham, Dylan called him the greatest rock star of all and pointed to how the evangelist was filling up stadiums long before the Stones were doing it. He seemed genuinely impressed with Graham's ability to "save" so many people at one time, perhaps seeing parallels to the ways in which audiences are transformed by musical performances and preaching. He claimed to listen to sermons often while making it clear that he was not necessarily drawn to those who preached them. Again, he's a complicated fellow, which is a focal point of Marshall's interesting book.

[John Kaess · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author makes an extremely thorough and in depth case that Dylan did have a true conversion to become a follower of Christ, which affected and continues to influence his life, his music, his message and his concert performances. He approaches this topic without bias or a preconceived outcome to this question. He examines the songs Dylan wrote in the late 70's and early 80's as well as other songs he has written, recorded and performed throughout the last 30 years after his conversion. He looks at interviews given by Dylan with his answers to questions about his spiritual life, and he also speaks with band members and close friends of Dylan. Most importantly, he also looks at the complexity of the idea that a person can be both Jewish and Christian: the idea that a jew can come to accept that Jesus is the Messiah, choose to follow and believe in Jesus, yet continue to also remain jewish. This something which many people fail to understand. If you are a Bob Dylan fan, you will find information here that is often overlooked by other authors. If you've wondered where Dylan stands spiritually and whether he (as has been reported many times) has renounced Christianity, this book will come as close to answering that question as is possible given Dylan's penchant for avoiding direct answers to questions, preferring to remain enigmatic with his spoken words because of his conviction that his songs deliver the message he has. If Dylan has an overarching philosophy about his career, it is to avoid any and all labels being attached to him or his songs, and the conviction that his destiny is to deliver a message that will influence and impact the lives of people and cause them to ponder, think, and examine life. I recommend this book highly.

[Sam Pratt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scott Marshall's "Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life" stands as an ambitious but frustrating attempt to map the spiritual journey of one of music's most enigmatic figures. While Marshall demonstrates impressive research capabilities, compiling decades of interviews, lyrics, and public statements, the book feels like it is chasing shadows rather than finding truths.

The book's greatest strength and most enjoyable aspects lie in the comprehensive documentation of Dylan's various religious phases, from his Jewish upbringing to his conversion to Christianity in the late 1970s, and his subsequent spiritual wanderings. Marshall provides valuable context for albums like "Slow Train Coming" and "Saved," helping readers understand the genuine religious conviction behind what some critics dismissed as mere phase.

However, I found the author's determination to find spiritual significance in virtually every Dylan lyric and utterance often leads to overreaching. Marshall occasionally seems more interested in confirming his own interpretations than in wrestling with the fundamental ambiguities that make Dylan such a fascinating subject.

Despite these shortcomings, "A Spiritual Life" serves as a useful resource for understanding the religious dimensions of Dylan's work.

A meticulously researched exploration of Dylan's spiritual side that will be most valuable to readers willing to draw their own conclusions from the wealth of primary sources presented.

[Jeannette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Other than reading Bob Dylan's own writing on himself, I have never read a book about Dylan before. Over the years I have of course heard the rumors, never delivered as such of course, about what Bob Dylan does or doesn't believe or profess to believe etc. This book is a good primer in how sticky fake news really is. Mr. Marshall tediously documents how undocumented opinions, even when contrary to obvious statements, performances and actions, take on a life all their own. It is well written in terms of being reliable and documented and full of quotes from a wide spectrum of people, and only gets a little less than enthralling due to the fact that the troubles that have flanked Dylan's carrier were themselves very repetitive. One of the values of reading this book is that if you are tender skinned, a little more concerned with other's perceptions than you would like to be, this book might strengthen you. The best parts of the book are the words that come straight out of Dylan's mouth, especially when he is being asked those kind of questions that no one should be be pestering anyone with.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

An adequate book largely about the trio of albums Bob Dylan recorded during this "Saved" years, and the spiritual references before and after in his body of music. I say adequate because the book is largely a collection of press clippings and excerpts of interviews, with a few anecdotes thrown in. But I think the book sheds enough light on the central question - is he still a Christian or isn't he? And it also documents aspects of Dylan's biography that are largely left out of "secular" biographies - the possible effect of Catholicism on Dylan's childhood in Minnesota, Dylan's association with the Lubivitchers, his continuing visits to synagogues, and the persistent performances of Gospel numbers during his Never-Ending Tour.

[James Morovich · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was awesome! A full examination and analyzation of Bob Dylan's lyrics and interviews showing that he has seemingly never abandoned his Christian faith, which he first embraced under well documented circumstances back in 1979. Many critics state that by 1983, he was no longer a Christian, but one who listens with a discerning ear can easily see how this is not likely the case, as Dylan still writes lyrics full of biblical references and covers decade old gospel songs in concert to this day, even pulling a few of his own from the alleged "Christian" era of 1979-1981.

If you are a Christian and a Bob Dylan fan such as me, you will love and appreciate this book!

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to thank Mr. Marshall for writing this book. I am guilty of what he quotes Bob Dylan as saying: “people want to know where I’m at because they don’t know where they’re at.” I have no business having my faith strengthened or weakened by Mr. Dylan’s faith (or lack of faith), but I’ve been a fan of his for 30 years and I can’t pretend what he thinks or believes doesn’t matter to me. Mr. Marshall obviously feels the same and he’s done a tremendous job cataloguing and analyzing Mr. Dylan’s songs, concerts, actions and interviews. I feel I have answers to my questions, and a bit of inspiration as well.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

A 'spiritual biography' of Dylan by someone who has written about Dylan and Christianity before. Marshall did a lot of research, and especially a lot of interviews, and the book is commended for not focusing on just one period of Dylan's work, but spanning the whole thing, and in that it does quite a service. On the other hand, at least to this godless reader, Marshall seemed a bit, well maybe defensive in the way he finds Christianity everywhere.

[Erik Steevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book!!!
I am a great follower of Bob since the 60’s and this inside look in his spiritual world is an awesome extra too what i already know about him.
I must say i do pitty Bob in a big way. Why? Well of course the man is a public figure but the way his person is analysed over and over again for more then 50 years must be a frightening thing to deal with for Mister Dylan.
Anyhow i am still surprised about what writers, find and write about our wellknown pilgrim.

[Duke Revard · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Jews still wince at the memory of his forays into gospel music," wrote David Vest. "As for Christian fans, they still scramble for the merest hint that Dylan might actually share their dogma."

Marshall is among the scrambling, arguing throughout for Dylan as a Messianic Jew.

Well researched, and providing enough direct quotation from diverse perspectives, to allow the reader to decide what to make of Dylan's "Spiritual Life."

I thoroughly enjoyed this read

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm now motivated to check out Dylan's music more thoroughly, and I maybe expected too much from the book. Although it is filled with lots of good quotes and anecdotes, the overwhelming focus on whether or not Dylan is/was a Christian is kind of annoying. The author needlessly interjects throughout, almost like a lawyer giving a defense.

[Miller Raybon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though this book dealt in implications rather than conclusions, I greatly enjoyed its sincere and comprehensive analysis of Dylan's spiritual journey. We may never know whether Dylan was truly the Property of Jesus. Only God himself understands his enigmatic child, but I will personally hedge my bets on seeing Dylan in the sweet by and by.

[Hank Pharis · Rating 3 out of 5]

(NOTE: I'm stingy with stars. For me 2 stars means a good book or a B. 3 stars means a very good book or a B+. 4 stars means an outstanding book or an A {only about 5% of the books I read merit 4 stars}. 5 stars means an all time favorite or an A+ {Only one of 400 or 500 books rates this!).

Provides strong evidence that Dylan has remained a Christian.

[Liam Branaghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting subject and well written; Dylan’s journey in faith. The book draws on lyrics, interviews and Dylanogy to understand Bob’s journey through Christianity and Judaism.

My criticism is too much of the thesis and book depends entirely on his three album run of religious albums in the 70s and decisions to play these later on. An interesting read nonetheless.

[Jakub Brudny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bardzo szczegółowa książka, wydaje mi się że to aż zbyt wysoki poziom szczegółowości. Momentami autor doszukuje się wątków religijnych w niezbyt oczywistych miejscach, nie mówię że na pewno ich tam nie ma, ale może ich nie być. Wątek żydowski jest bardzo ciekawy, zwłaszcza patrząc na niego z dzisiejszej perspektywy (Free Palestine!)

[Ben Lansing]

I'm a huge Dylan fan and approached this book with a lot of skepticism. I have to say - this is probably the first biographical Dylan assessment I've encountered that comes close to capturing the songwriter in a way that is consistent with his lyrics, interviews, and autobiography.

[Simon Freeman · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are great books on Dylan this Isn't one of them. Tedious beyond words

[Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit redundantly in places, the author explains through interview, song lyric, and continued song choices that Bob Dylan is still a Jesus-movement evangelical Christian.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

stars don't mean much to me without some referent. I liked the book.

[Timothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not another Dylan book. Yes, I am not going to write a detailed review just state that I really enjoyed this book and I think Marshall proved his premise. Great book.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting angle for which to write/read a book on Dylan.

[Subjuntivo Subjuntivo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I made a mistake. This is a religious approach to his life. Not interested, but can't judge its value.

[Ssmith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring