I’ve been catching up on some 2011 music courtesy of various ‘best of’ lists.
Sort of my usual ‘aggregate an number of observations from a variety of sources’ philosophy that I use when trying to arrive at a dependable recipe.
Anyway, Paul Simon’s So Beautiful Or So What has been playing for a few days now.
For those who like Simon this represents a return to Rhythm Of The Saints or (not quite the heights of) Graceland type quality.
So I was quite interested when an article published on Christianity Today’s website featured an interview with the veteran singer/songwriter which mentions that he requested and gained the opportunity to spend time with John Stott, the late evangelical Christian/pastor/writer.
He [Simon] decided he wanted to meet Stott, and a friend helped connect them. Simon called the theologian and offered to take him out for dinner. He said Stott told him he didn’t go out much anymore and instead invited the musician to his flat for tea and biscuits.
“I’d say we spent two or three hours there,” Simon recalled. “I talked about everything that was on my mind about things that seemed illogical, and he talked about why he had come to his conclusions.”
Simon was very impressed by Stott. “I liked him immensely,” he told me. “I left there feeling that I had a greater understanding of where belief comes from when it doesn’t have an agenda.”
“It didn’t change my way of thinking,” he added, “but what I liked about it was that we were able to talk and have a dialogue.”
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