Dylan and the Pope again

Sean Curnyn, who is writing a book on political and moral themes in the work of Bob Dylan, has a thought-provoking post at First Things which takes up once more the reports of Benedict XVI's criticism of Dylan being invited to perform before John Paul II in Bologna in 1997. While Ratzinger worried "whether it was really right to allow this type of ‘prophet’ to appear," John Paul — perhaps spontaneously, or was it a speech writer? — riffed easily on Dylan's lyrics:

A representative of yours has just said on your behalf that the answer to the questions of your life “is blowing in the wind”. It is true! But not in the wind which blows everything away in empty whirls, but the wind which is the breath and voice of the Spirit, a voice that calls and says: “Come!” (cf. Jn 3:8; Rv 22:17).

You asked me: How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man? I answer you: One! There is only one road for man and it is Christ, who said: “I am the way” (Jn 14:6). He is the road of truth, the way of life.

Curnyn is very polite in suggesting that Benedict XVI probably doesn't know much about Dylan. But his main point is that Dylan's greatness as an artist has not been any attempt to give ultimate answers, but that he keeps proposing, in the face of an often superficial culture, the pressing need to ask important questions:

Dylan’s songs, and in particular his greatest songs, have often derived a great deal of their power by posing questions that compel and fascinate the mind of the listener. While most of our popular culture (from TV commercials on down to the latest pop song) tells you what you should want, what you should need, whom you ought to envy, or whom you ought to blame, Bob Dylan’s songs tend to shift the spotlight in a quite different direction. Leaving aside his three albums of gospel-oriented compositions—which, by their nature are indisputably about providing an answer—Dylan has made a career of writing songs that bring the listener face to face with questions and mysteries as timeless as they are also, sooner or later, urgent.