Book explores Cohen’s spiritual landscape

The Anglican’s Stuart Mann recently interviewed Brian Walsh about his latest book, Rags of Light: Leonard Cohen and the Landscape of Biblical Imagination. Mr. Walsh is a retired campus minister, theologian, farmer and award-winning author who lives in the Diocese of Toronto. He gave the Snell Lecture at St. James Cathedral in December.

The title of your new book is Rags of Light. Where does that come from, and what does it mean?
Leonard Cohen’s stunning 1984 album, Various Positions, closes with a prayer of a song called, “If It Be Your Will.” While no one song could be said to capture the spirituality of Leonard Cohen, this is certainly one of the most poignant. Asking God whether he should continue to speak and continue his offering of song, the artist sings in the last verse:

And draw us near
And bind us tight
All Your children here
In their rags of light

In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be Your will

This is a prayer for the intimacy of covenant, the restoration of faithfulness, the dawning anew of light in the midst of the night of our culture and our lives. The notion of “rags of light” conjures up both the sense that our clothes are tattered, barely covering our nakedness, and the recognition that we do not have enough light to fully illuminate the path before us. Delivered with a quiet pathos, these lines evoke something of the longing at the heart of human spirituality. Cohen has given voice to that kind of longing in a way that has resonated deeply with millions of listeners around the world. The book is written in the prayerful spirit of this song, looking deeply into the “rags of light” that compose the body of Cohen’s work, while hopefully taking a similar stance of humility about what it is that I am offering.

When and how did your passion for Leonard Cohen’s music begin, and how has the man and his music influenced you over the years, including your faith journey?
I have been engaging with Cohen’s work since a high school essay more than 50 years ago on his song “Suzanne.” And while I followed his career over the years, it wasn’t until I first saw him perform live that the spiritual power of his music and his personality struck a chord deep within me. A Leonard Cohen concert was a spiritual, indeed a liturgical, experience. His music and lyrics not only capture the ethos and longings of a multi-generational community of listeners, but consistently seem to resonate profoundly with the Hebrew and Christian scriptures.

And so, when I pastored the Wine Before Breakfast community at the University of Toronto, we found ourselves often going to Cohen for music that would deepen our liturgical experience. The “Cohen Eucharist” that we curated at St. James Cathedral on Dec. 8 was an example of what happens when all of the music and prayers are written by Leonard Cohen and brought into creative engagement with the scriptures for the day and the Eucharistic prayer.

Why did you write Rags of Light, and what is its main theme?
Well, it’s all there in the subtitle: Leonard Cohen and the Landscape of Biblical Imagination. You see, there was nothing “generic” about Cohen’s spirituality. Rather, his was decidedly and unapologetically a biblical spirituality rooted most deeply in the Torah, but also in the Christian scriptures. Indeed, he referred to these scriptures as the “landscape” within which he worked. This is, if you will, the foundation of Leonard Cohen’s imagination, the beating heart of his poetry and song.

The landscape of biblical faith provides, for Cohen, the living narratives, mythology, symbols and motifs through which he describes and engages present reality with both prophetic depth and priestly compassion. And that’s the heart of my project in this book. I am seeking to engage Cohen, in conversation with the scriptures, in such a way that my readers might be able to take up Cohen’s own invitation to walk into that biblical landscape, and perhaps to find home there.

You include the Christian scriptures in Cohen’s sense of the biblical landscape. What was Cohen’s relationship with Jesus?
Complicated – which is a lot better than being non-existent. And actually, any living relationship with Jesus needs to be complicated. From the first hit song “Suzanne” to “It Seemed a Better Way” on Cohen’s last album, You Want it Darker, Jesus has been a constant companion. Once, when asked about his relationship to Jesus, Cohen had this to say:

“I’m very fond of Jesus Christ. He may be the most beautiful guy who walked the face of this earth. Any guy who says, ‘Blessed are the poor, blessed are the meek’ has got to be a figure of unparalleled generosity and insight and madness.”

He went on to describe Jesus as a man “who declared himself to stand among the thieves, the prostitutes and the homeless. His position cannot be comprehended.” In Jesus, Cohen said, we meet a “generosity that would overthrow the world if it was embraced because nothing would weather that compassion.”

So Cohen confesses his attraction to this Jesus, and, not surprisingly, there are references to Jesus throughout his body of work. Recall that on “Suzanne,” he sang of Jesus:

And you want to travel with Him
And you want to travel blind
And you think you’ll maybe trust Him
For He’s touched your perfect body with His mind

There is a point of deep connection that engenders the possibility of faith because “maybe” you can trust him. That “maybe” sometimes moves to “you know he will find you” to “you know you can trust him” at different points of Cohen’s life.

In our conversation at the cathedral after I presented the Snell Lecture, Dean Stephen Hance asked me about “It Seemed the Better Way,” a song on the final album before Cohen’s death. Here it seems as if Cohen has come to a final resolution about Jesus.

Seemed the better way
When first I heard him speak
But now it’s much too late
To turn the other cheek

Sounded like the truth
Seemed the better way
Sounded like the truth
But it’s not the truth today

Is this his last word on Jesus? “Sounded like the truth/but it’s not the truth today.” No, there is more. The song concludes with these words:

I better hold my tongue
I better take my place
Lift this glass of blood
Try to say the grace

Holding his tongue, the poet understands his place and adopts a stance of humility rather than an arrogant militance against Jesus. Yes, there is deep doubt, ambivalence and struggle here, but the poet does not close the door on Jesus. Rather, he brings together the shocking image of lifting a glass of blood with the Jewish tradition of saying a grace, a thanksgiving, to the Lord of the Universe after a meal. This is a clear and provocative reference to the Eucharist.

That Jesus maintains a central place in the landscape of Leonard Cohen’s imagination is clear until the end, not least in the devastatingly beautiful title song of the final album, “You Want it Darker.”

With death ever more closely on his horizon, Cohen offers the opening lines of the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer of blessing and doxology over the dead: “Magnified and sanctified/Be Thy Holy Name.” The Name, revealed in the burning bush and that dare not be voiced (Exodus 3:14), is magnified and sanctified before the death of his children. Cohen begins that prayer, but then in the next line he evocatively transposes this Jewish prayer into a Christian telling of the story. “Vilified and crucified/In the human frame.” When the Holy Name enters history, when the Word of Words takes flesh – that is, when the Covenant God fully enters into the fray of violence and betrayal – the result is murder. What does the magnified and glorified Holy One look like in the midst of this relationship? Vilified and crucified. Why? Because we kill the flame.

Let’s be clear: I am not saying that Leonard Cohen was a Christian. He was a Jew and remained a Jew throughout his life and in his death. But in the landscape of his imagination, indeed, in the deepest places of his spiritual identity and struggle, we will always find Jesus.

Who is this book for?
This book is written for a very broad audience. Certainly it will most directly appeal to people who have been touched in one way or another by the songs and poetry of Leonard Cohen. For those folks, I’d like to invite them into the biblical landscape of Cohen’s imagination. I hope that this book will lead you deeper into Cohen as it leads you deeper into the shape of biblical faith.

Perhaps you have a sense that there is a failure of imagination in the Church and in broader society. I think that Cohen has much to teach us. Or maybe you are just interested in the relationship between faith and culture. This book could also be for you.

This book extends the invitation into the biblical landscape and spiritual struggle that is at the heart of Leonard Cohen’s rich artistic contribution.

Rags of Light: Leonard Cohen and the Landscape of Biblical Imagination can be ordered through bookstores.