Sufjan Stevens’s Carrie & Lowell

Mayward (Theology and the Films of Christopher Nolan), a theology professor at George Fox University, presents an offbeat and provocative study of Sufjan Stevens’s 2015 album Carrie & Lowell “from a queer Christian perspective.” The album explores Stevens’s grief following the death of his estranged biological mother Carrie, weaving in ample queer and religious allusions (see “John My Beloved,” in which lyrics like “I’m holding my breath/ My tongue on your chest” mix with calls for Jesus to “be near me, come shield me”). Those seemingly antithetical references, Mayward writes, represent an intertwining of erotic and religious love as the artist grapples with God, death, and the “transcendence and the tragic limits” of human existence. Mayward interweaves close analysis of individual tracks with intimate reflections on how the album buoyed him through his own struggles with faith (maybe, he writes, “Christianity was less about intellectual assent to particular creedal statements” than “about falling in love with Jesus and receiving His love in return”). This astute and lyrical analysis paints Stevens’s music in a profound new light. (Nov.)