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In recent years, Bono has become an ardent social activist, traversing the globe to combat the African AIDS epidemic and relieve third world debt, and lobbying leaders from President Bush to Pope John Paul II.

Through his activism and his "music with a conscience," Bono points listeners toward issues and introspection much as folk artists of the 1960s did, said Philip Goff, director of the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University.

But Goff said Bono is hardly a squeaky-clean Christian, citing as evidence his use of the F-word at a 2003 Golden Globe Awards ceremony.

"On the one hand, while a lot of Christian young people would look at him as a great exemplar, some of them would turn him off immediately because he cursed," Goff said. "He doesn't fit the usual idea of some evangelicals of what a Christian should be doing."

But he also speaks a language understood by many young Christians, Goff adds.

"They do want to look at Christianity in different ways," he said. "There's no doubt about it, his approach is more global, and this is a more global society."

As a fan since college, Mulder felt U2's approach to spiritual longing and social justice merited a mini-course at Calvin.

Besides video clips and CDs, he's using the text Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2 by Steve Stockman (Relevant Books, 2001). Mulder touches on the band members' personal faith—they once were affiliated with a charismatic Protestant movement called Shalom, and Bono and bandmates the Edge and Larry Mullen Jr. have publicly professed to be Christians.

But the focus is on the group's recordings and performances. Mulder sees a strong thread of "Christian critique" throughout U2's three-decade career.

"Bono's view of the world is very close to what we teach here at Calvin. We're not just sitting around waiting for the Earth to be destroyed. We expect the world to be renewed."

Some of the group's lyrics are explicitly scriptural, others more subtle.

"You can just tell by their art that they're very fluent in the Christian tradition," said Maynard, the Episcopal priest. "They understand the metaphors, the thought patterns of Christianity."

That comes through clearly for Katie Arbogast. The Calvin student described a U2 concert as "a spiritual experience."

"It's not down-your-throat Christian values," she said. "You have to search for it and crawl for it."

Copyright © 2005 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

More about U2, including downloads and the U2 iPoD, is available from their website.

Steve Stockman's Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2 is available at Christianbook.com. Christianity Todayinterviewed the author last April.

Co-editor Beth Maynard's Get Up Off Your Knees is available from Christianbook.com. CT interviewed her last April.

Christianity Today's cover story on Bono's trip across the Midwest urging Christians to fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa is Bono's American Prayer | The world's biggest rock star tours the heartland, talking more openly about his faith as he recruits Christians in the fight against AIDS in Africa.

Books & Culture's cover story on Bono is The Legend of Bono Vox discusses Get Up Off Your Knees.

Other Christianity Today articles on Bono and U2 include:

Pop Love for a War-Torn World | Atomic Bomb is classic U2, with a prescription for healing the world. (Nov. 23, 2004)

The Dick Staub Interview: Exegeting U2 | Get Up Off Your Knees preaches U2 from Boy to All that You Can't Leave Behind. (April 20, 2004)

Bono's American Prayer | The world's biggest rock star tours the heartland, talking more openly about his faith as he recruits Christians in the fight against AIDS in Africa. (Feb. 21, 2003)

'Pop Music with Brains' | From the beginning, U2 has engaged spiritual questions. (Feb. 21, 2003)

Bono's Thin Ecclesiology | Any person can stand outside the church and critique its obedience to the gospel. (Feb. 21, 2003)

Bono Tells Christians: Don't Neglect Africa | He urges evangelicals to take a lead in fighting AIDS and poverty. (April 19, 2002)

Inside CT: Bono's Burning Question | Evangelicals and the U2 front man try to figure each other out. (April 19, 2002)

Honest Prayer, Beautiful Grace | The messianic and passionate U2 sounds like itself again. (Feb. 8, 2001)

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February (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49