When one thinks of rebellious figures, it probably does not take long to include Yeshua Ha-Nozri – also known as Jesus of Nazareth – and punk ‘subculturalists’ in the list of possible choices. For many of his contemporaries in high places, Ha-Nozri was surely a low-down cheap little punk, just as the modern day ‘punks’ have been representatives of utter irreverence and blasphemy to their fellow citizens. Both have also accrued a worldwide following, although perhaps not entirely equally; and occasionally, ideologues associated with them become combined – as in the case of ‘J.C.H.C.’ by Officer Negative, or Christian punk and hardcore in more general.
Yet, as Mark Johnson notes on the opening pages of his Seditious Theology, to engage theologically with the punk movement ‘may be a surprising choice, for … even those who write on the subject within the rather broad-minded field of popular culture are often happy to admit to the movement's more hedonistic characteristics’ (p. 1). I tend to agree with his estimation, and thus welcome his aim to ‘imaginatively re-identify’ connections between punk and theology, in order to ‘grant enhanced insights into both the phenomenon of punk and aspects of Jesus’ life, ministry and teaching despite their very obvious differences’ (p. 4, Johnson's italics). To this end, the book is divided into two parts, the first centring on the emergence of punk in the UK in the late 1970s; the second part, in turn, is concerned with societal turmoil in the Levant some two millennia ago.
Johnson's cautiousness towards the ‘very obvious’ differences between punk and the ministry of Jesus betrays that his implicit target audience is constituted by representatives of the modern Christian church, rather than leftist non-believing popular music scholars for instance. Johnson in fact hints towards this when he writes that ‘if the church is to connect with the world it needs to understand what it is connecting with, whether it approves of it or not’ and that, by focussing on cultural phenomena like punk, ‘the church may find … some quite unexpected connections’ in terms of solidarity with present-day social tensions (p. 3).
Recognising the target audience helps also understand the dualistic structure of the presentation, since the first half serves as an introduction to punk and as such offers little that is new for popular music scholarship. What is praiseworthy, nonetheless, is that Johnson's treatment is multimodal as he discusses punk's stylistic and graphic elements alongside its verbal, acoustic and behavioural ones. Also there are inklings of intersectionality present when dealing with punk and women, Northern Ireland and the black community; yet the cases remain isolated from each other. The tensions and contradictions inherent in punk, as well as its political potential, are demonstrated credibly, but this is hardly an original merit.
Moreover, in the punk-devoted first part there are very few explicit connections to theology, even when the use of religious symbols is discussed. In the end, I became slightly frustrated by the anticipatory cross-references to the second part and chapter conclusions that often suggested leaps forward instead of elaborating on the ideas on the spot. This is, I assume, a direct consequence of the rigid two-part structure of the book; I would have preferred a more organic approach where the theological implications of punk would have been scrutinised as they emerge.
In addition, Johnson's quest for ‘the quintessence of punk’ risks romanticising and authenticating the phenomenon; for him, ‘[i]t is in the oppositional state of mind of the Outsider’ that forms the core of punk and ‘where you see the one who creates chaos but, paradoxically, does so in order to help or to be part of addressing things that they perceive are wrong’ (p. 98). Not surprisingly, he maintains that this is, well, an eternal essence, and thus can be detected also in the formative years of the ministry of Jesus.
The implicit authentication of the 1970s UK punk – and by extension, the ministry of Jesus – leads further to two issues that undermine the argument. First, while the UK-centricity is duly acknowledged, its repercussions are not discussed, and neither are the later developments and endurance of punk in relation to ‘seditious theology’ in particular. This gives the treatment an ahistorical and purpose-oriented feel.
Second, one is left wondering whether there might be other (sub)cultural movements that could be juxtaposed similarly with the ministry of Jesus. Certain metal subgenres, perhaps? Occasionally the ‘imaginative re-identifications’ Johnson offers appear somewhat arbitrary, as in the case of drawing parallels between punk's anti-racist sympathies and Jesus eating with the Levi tax collector; while there admittedly is a point to be made about supporting ‘socially unacceptable’ people, I failed to grasp the link between modern-day systemic racism and ancient economic structures that lead some people to be perceived as ‘doubly treacherous’ because of ethno-religious reasons (p. 143).
In fact, not only because of the authentication tendencies, but also on the basis of the use of sources, Johnson's argument itself enters a doubly treacherous ground. While many of his remarks on the connections between punk and the ministry of Jesus are commonsensical, they remain just so because of the overall incomparability of respective source material used. In other words, archival material and media sources from the 1970s are set against the four Biblical gospels, and both sets of material are read as if they provide an equal gateway to the contemporaries’ feelings and ideas – despite the (rather late) caveat about ‘a need for treading with care, for we run the risk of arriving at inaccurate impressions through the limited material available and our present vantage point, some two thousand years distant, is obviously not without its own preconceptions’ (p. 136). This might also have to do more with the implicit target audience than anything else, yet the remark led me to wonder would it really have been too different to try to approach the ‘seditious theologies’ of both punk and the ministry of Jesus more explicitly from, indeed, our present vantage point? Clearly both movements are still important to people, and there is no denying much can be learned from both.
