Dylan Transfigured

Rolling Stone’s recent (September) interview with Bob Dylan suggests some interesting things about Dylan’s religious life.

First, it seems he experienced his religious conversion not in the seventies (traditionally 1978), but already by Blonde on Blonde, indeed in ‘64. He says in the interview that “Rainy Day Women” is based on the Book of Acts.

Second, he is still religious, as only some had suspected; he never left it. He still refers to Jesus as “Our Lord”—in fact, he also does so in the recently released song “Duquesne Whistle.” He planned his next album to be a collection of hymns. He says “No kind of life is fulfilling if you haven’t been redeemed.” Asked if the Bible informs his songs, he responds “Of course, what else could there be?”

He also, paradoxically, when asked about his faith, says “Who’s to say that I even have any faith or of what kind?” But he prefaces it with “O ye of little faith,” and immediately follows it with “I see God’s hand in everything.” Which seems to mean not that he has no religion, but that his religion has progressed past faith to certainty.

There are also some indications that he might actually be Catholic, or at least have studied Catholicism and accepted it as some sort of authority. He says he was “transfigured,” and when asked to clarify, says “you can go learn about it from the Catholic Church.” Sixties flashback: What was he talking about in “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine”? Wasn’t that a pretty Catholic song? And before his supposed seventies conversion? Of course, it was 1967, so we were all too drugged up to notice:

"I dreamed I saw St. Augustine
Alive, with fiery breath
And I dreamed I was among the ones that put him out to death
Oh, I awoke in anger, so alone and terrified
I put my fingers against the glass
And bowed my head and cried."

The image of martyrdom is a very Catholic one, and Dylan inserts it deliberately: the real St. Augustine was not martyred.

In his latest release, “Duquesne Whistle,” he says the train whistle sounds “like the Mother of Our Lord.” Isn't that a Catholic image? Isn't it Mary calling us to Jesus? To that Slow Train Coming?

Time to comb back through Dylan’s lyrics to 1964. There’s a doctoral thesis here…