CHAPTER 6 Bob Dylan’s Conversions: The “Gospel Years” as Symptom and Transition

Abstract

This contribution analyzes Bob Dylan’s evangelic conversion in light of other conversions throughout his oeuvre, emphasizing the theological moment of the event of conversion as such. Two important aspects of conversion inaugurate Dylan’s born-again output: on the one hand, the isolation and purification of the figure of Christ as the all-pervading “object” of his quest; on the other, the “re-coding” of a series of figures and motifs from his earlier work, most of them derived, of course, from the proverbial American songbook. Before and after Dylan’s evangelical ruse, the legacy of 18th Century American Transcendentalism as well as Christ as an emblem of the rebel and/or artist constitute two relatively stable religious aspects of his art.