There shall be singing within the new heavens and new earth (Rev. 15:3-5). There might even be guitars—1000’s of them (Rev 14:2).
I don’t know if Bruce Springsteen has learn the E-book of Revelation, however his Spring-Summer time 2025 “Land of Hope and Desires” tour suggests he might need some understanding of what Christians name the Kingdom of God.
Within the age of Trump, Bruce Springsteen would be the most influential political theologian at work at the moment.
Music critics, students, and biographers have lengthy famous the non secular depth of the Boss’s lyrics. In an oft-cited 1988 essay within the Catholic journal America, Andrew Greeley, a priest and sociologist, stated Springsteen spoke to “the which means of life out of the (maybe) unselfconscious photographs” of his “Catholic heritage.” Extra not too long ago, in a 2020 documentary, Springsteen stated, “All of us have our personal methods of praying. I restricted my prayers to a few minutes and a 45-rpm document….”
And now, within the age of Trump, Bruce Springsteen would be the most influential political theologian at work at the moment. Of their work Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Modern Context, David Gushee and Glenn Stassen write, “Telling the reality is a human obligation beneath God’s sovereignty rising in our numerous covenantal relations with others, sharpened significantly for these dedicated to participation within the dawning reign of God.” Springsteen is a truth-teller. He’s doing Kingdom work.
The Boss’s home of guitars is a metaphor for resistance.
Springsteen has spent half a century preaching concepts on the intersection of the American founding and the Kingdom of God. On Might 14, 2025, he opened the Land of Hope and Desires tour in Manchester, England with these phrases: “My dwelling, the America I really like, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is presently within the palms of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.”
“Tonight,” he continued, “we ask all who consider in democracy and the most effective of our American experiment to rise with us, increase your voices towards authoritarianism and let freedom ring.”
Springsteen repeated these phrases at each cease on the brief tour, from Manchester to Milan.
One of many songs Springsteen featured—he performed it each night time of the Land of Hope and Desires tour—is “Home of a Thousand Guitars.” The Boss labored on this tune for over a decade earlier than the monitor appeared on his 2020 album Letter to You. Earlier than this tour, he had solely carried out it 4 instances. However anybody who listens to the primary few traces will perceive why he has added it to his set record:
The felony clown has stolen the throne
He steals what he can by no means personal
Might the reality ring out from each small-town bar
We’ll gentle up the home of a thousand guitars
In his Manchester introduction to “Home of a Thousand Guitars,” Springsteen informed the group: “The final verify…on energy after the checks and balances of presidency have failed are the individuals, you and me. It’s within the union of individuals round a standard set of values—now that’s all that stands between a democracy and authoritarianism. On the finish of the day, all we’ve received is one another.”
Elsewhere, Springsteen described the tune equally: “We’ve been given the instruments and the property of the soul to be attended to and accountable for, and that takes work—work that we would construct on the ideas of affection, liberty, fraternity. Historic concepts that also type the idea of a superb life and a humane society. What occurs on this home issues.”
The Boss’s home of guitars is a metaphor for resistance.
Springsteen might have had Chilean folks singer Victor Jara in thoughts as he wrote “Home of a Thousand Guitars.” Jara was a poet, songwriter, former Catholic seminarian, and political activist. He and different musicians wrote and sang songs embedded with political themes celebrating Chilean farmers and employees. Their witness unfold by means of Latin America as a part of the Chilean New Tune motion.
Jara carried out his songs in help of Chile’s democratic socialist president, Salvador Allende, and in opposition to Augusto Pinochet’s 1973 army overthrow of socialist Allende’s administration. (The US supported Pinochet.)
Pinochet’s troops captured the 40-year-old artist, imprisoned him in Chile Stadium, tortured him, and shot him to dying. The Netflix documentary Bloodbath on the Stadium tells Jara’s story.
At this time, Chileans have fun the people singer’s life with an annual competition in Santiago referred to as “Mil Guiltarras para Victor Jara” (“A Thousand Guitars for Victor Jara”).
In a 2013 live performance in Santiago, the fortieth anniversary of Jara’s dying and the primary “Mil Guiltarras para Victor Jara” competition, Springsteen paid tribute to Jara and his activism with a efficiency of “Manifesto,” the final tune he wrote earlier than his homicide:
Sure, my guitar is a employee
shining and smelling of spring
my guitar will not be for killers
grasping for cash and energy
however for the individuals who labour
in order that the longer term might flower.
For a tune takes on a which means
when its personal coronary heart beat is robust
sung by a person who will die singing
honestly singing his tune.
In his evaluate of Letter to You, Rolling Stone author Brian Hiatt describes Springsteen’s “Home of a Thousand Guitars” as a tune that paints “a beguiling image of a rock & roll heaven on Earth, a spot ‘the place the music by no means ends’ and fellowship reigns, a vacation spot not removed from [Springsteen’s] ‘Land of Hope and Desires.’”
Springsteen informed Hiatt that “Home of a Thousand Guitars” is “about this whole non secular world that I needed to construct for myself…and provides to my viewers and expertise with my band. It’s like that gospel tune ‘I’m Engaged on a Constructing.’”
I’m a engaged on constructing
I’m a engaged on constructing
I’m a engaged on constructing
For my lord for my lord
It’s a holy ghost constructing
It’s a holy ghost constructing
“Home of a Thousand Guitars” preaches a politics of hope. Springsteen’s constructing is the house of a group that speaks energy to the “felony clown” who has “stolen the throne.” It homes a prophetic brotherhood and sisterhood outlined by friendship, fellowship, magnificence, artwork, and the issues that bind us. The Boss urges us to announce this fellowship of hope from the “stadiums and the small-town bars,” or wherever we’ve got a platform or a voice.
Christians await a time when the music won’t ever finish. However till that day comes, we testify, we prophesy, we type communities that decision the powers of this world to account.
The Jersey Shore poet calls us to solidarity round time-honored virtues—Christian beliefs—equivalent to fact, mercy, and justice. There’s a “now” however “not but” high quality to the tune, not in contrast to the best way Christians perceive the Kingdom of God. (Springsteen ends his 2016 memoir, Born to Run, with the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy kingdom come, thy shall be carried out, on earth as it’s in heaven.”)
Christians await a time when the music won’t ever finish. However till that day comes, we testify, we prophesy, we type communities that decision the powers of this world to account, and we use our presents and abilities to remind our modern-day Pontius Pilates (John 18:36) that the Kingdom has arrived.
Quickly, “all souls from close to and much” will “meet on the home of a thousand guitars.”
