Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: mib@geech.ai.mit.edu (Michael I Bushnell) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Godspell and Nietzsche Message-ID: Date: 5 Mar 91 05:25:16 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Free Software Foundation, Cambridge, MA Lines: 33 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu I was just thinking about the Finale to the musical Godspell. (I was thinking about it because I just purchased the CD of the Broadway production of Godspell...:-)). The finale has Jesus on the cross singing "Oh God, I'm bleeding" antiphonally with the onlookers singing "Oh God, you're bleeding". Then it moves, with Jesus voice beginning to crack, to "Oh God, I'm dying", and the crowd's "Oh God, you're dying". Finally, Jesus sings, once, in a very still voice with no accompaniment, "Oh God, I'm dead", and then the crowd sings, several times, "Oh God, you're dead". The crowd's singing begins to lift a bit, and then finally changes to "long live God" sung over and over, and finally intertwined with the "Prepare ye the way of the Lord" from the opening of the show. It occurred to me that our message of the death of Christ, on our minds this season, is in an interesting way, similar to Nietzsche's pronouncement "God is dead". Neitzsche thought that statement to represent a joyous time, a time of liberation, etc. While we don't agree with his ideas, and while his predictions certainly didn't come to pass, we see in the same words "God is dead", as the act of God's self-sacrifice for us, a message of great power, liberation, and joy. For, because of that death, Christ broke death and sin. The singing of "long live God" is even more poignant, since this is what was said when English kings died: "the king is dead; long live the king!" I've always found Godspell to be tremendously uplifting...I'm glad I got it. I'd recommend it to anyone. While Andrew Lloyd Weber's "Jesus Christ Superstar" has much to recommend it, as well as much to be disappointed at, Godspell is a fine musical. -mib