In late July (2017), Prof. Evyatar Marienberg met with British rockstar Sting for a detailed conversation as part of the research for his upcoming book about Sting and religion [update 2021: book published]. Sting, a.k.a. Gordon Sumner, was born in 1951 in North East England to a Catholic father and an Anglican mother. He went through Catholic schools through the crucial years before, during, and after the Vatican II council, and thus experienced a wildly changing Church as a young man. Even though he does not consider himself a Catholic today, Catholic imagery is extremely important in his lyrics.

Marienberg’s work is based on a variety of sources, including archival materials of all kinds (schools, diocese, parish, etc.), local newspapers from the time, and interviews. Last year, Sting read a significant part of the upcoming book, which prepared the way for their discussion in July which lasted almost 2.5 hours.

For a short article related to this project, click here.

Posted in Faculty News on August 11, 2017. Bookmark the permalink.