When I saw that The Afters were on the new "Mercy Me" label (Simple Records, owned by Bart Millard and producer Pete Kipley), I expected a mellower pop sound, but it was a pleasant surprise to hear some aggressive guitars. The Afters' style of pop reflects bands like Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, Coldplay and Sanctus Real. Catchy choruses and a smooth sound will get you listening to the lyrics. Sometimes overtly Christian ("You", "All That I Am") and sometimes simply positive ("Beautiful Love"), the songs have the potential for airplay on both Christian and mainstream radio.
The Afters are one of the rising new bands in Christian music. Only time will tell if they make a big splash, but I think the odds are good that we'll be hearing a lot more from them. I Wish We All Could Win will delight fans of power pop.
The New Age infiltration of established religions continues to thrive, as the February 27, 2005 Denver Post revealed in two articles on mysticism by Colleen O'Connor. Getting to the soul of peace describes how "a Colorado monk and a Tennessee rabbi break down religious walls to link spiritual leaders for a higher common ground."
The Colorado monk at the heart of this "interspirituality" movement is Thomas Keating. O'Connor explains:
As abbot of St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Mass., Keating brought in Sufi masters, rabbis who studied mystical Judaism, and Hindu gurus like Swami Satchidananda. He even imported a few Zen roshis to give sesshins, or Buddhist meditation sessions, to the monks.
But Keating's most important contribution, according to scholars, is his development of centering prayer, a revival of a Christian method of contemplative meditation that he and two fellow monks updated from the classic 14th-century mystic's manual, "The Cloud of Unknowing."
In 1981, Keating moved to St. Benedict's Monastery in Snowmass, where he soon started Contemplative Outreach, which educates people in the mystical, or contemplative, tradition. Since then, it has sprouted chapters in 38 states and 22 foreign countries.
At the same time, Keating participated in interspiritual collaborations at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, founded by Tibetan Buddhist Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
The Afters bust onto the scene...