The Gospel According to … the Boss?

Posted on Jul 1, 2008

timeout.com

St. Bruce?: Author Symynkywicz wouldn’t necessarily put Springsteen on par with more strictly religious historical figures, but he casts the Boss’ lyrics in a reverent light in his new book.

Unitarian Universalist minister Jeffrey Symynkywicz is quite the Bruce Springsteen enthusiast, apparently. The Boston fan has studied Bruce Springsteen’s lyrics as though they were Scripture, and the end result is Symynkywicz’s new book—wait for it—“The Gospel According to Bruce Springsteen.”

The Los Angeles Times:

A Harvard Divinity School graduate, Symynkywicz stresses that he’s not out to peddle the First Church of Bruce. His admiration for Springsteen is rooted more in the inspirational and empathetic than the theological.

“What’s inspiring about him is that he has so much to say about different life stages that we all go through,” Symynkywicz said from his church in suburban Stoughton, Mass.

“When we discern that Springsteen is ‘there’ for us—when we feel as though he is addressing us directly and personally in his songs,” Symynkywicz writes, “his work seems to put down strong roots in our own experience. His music helps us to make sense of the sometimes tangled, often disparate threads of our lives.”

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