Going Down to the Deep Places

Author Elizabeth Cunningham discusses her new book "My Life as a Prayer" and the ways that gospel music has informed her unique faith journey.

Before we get to the feature…

God’s Music Is My Life is expanding in 2024! I shared in last week’s newsletter that the God’s Music Is My Life podcast was coming and….it’s here! The first episode premiered yesterday on Spotify. In less than fifteen minutes, it shares the intention behind God’s Music Is My Life as a concept. Be sure to follow the podcast on Spotify! You can listen to the first episode here.

My Life as a Prayer

I first discovered Elizabeth Cunningham’s writing in 2008. My heart had been broken in a number of ways and, as I’m prone to do, I went to the library to find a book. I was walking the aisles and a book caught my eye. The Passion of Mary Magdalen by Elizabeth Cunningham. To this day, I can’t explain why or how my eyes landed on it, but I knew it was the one. The opening line of the prologue read: “This story begins in the night. There will be a dawn, I promise.” I was sold.

I took the book home and read and read and read and read until I had finished all 640 pages. And then I read again. In her fictional retelling of the Jesus story from the perspective of Mary Magdalen, who in this version was a Celtic goddess named Maeve, I had found truth. A truth that felt more sure than what I’d heard in countless sermons.

There was also music in Elizabeth’s words. I was sure I heard Laura Nyro in between the lines, but I also heard gospel music. Maeve and Jesus both had a serious social justice bent that rang clear and true…they understood community in a way I’d only experienced in the Holiness church of my youth. But there were also call and response songs that she wrote into the story that weren’t unlike the call and response songs we sang.

Long story short, I was an instant fan.

When I finally put The Passion of Mary Magdalen down, I read the prequel (Magdalen Rising) and then just as I moved to New York in 2009, the sequel (Bright Dark Madonna) was being published. I had a podcast at the time and reached out to Elizabeth’s publicist who graciously set up an interview for us. We arranged to meet at a venue in Harlem that I was performing at later that evening and I recorded our conversation. When Elizabeth began singing the prologue from The Passion of Mary Magdalen, as she told me she often did in her book presentations, I was floored. I declared, “We’re going to Nashville to make an album!”

That began our now fifteen year friendship and collaboration. The outcome of that first collaboration was Maevensong: A Musical Odyssey The Maeve Chronicles, an album that incorporates blues, folk, gospel, and Celtic sounds. At the center of the project is a song called “Miriam’s Lament,” sung from the perspective of Jesus’ mother as he is being crucified. Accompanied by Nashville’s own Ron Gilmore (J. Cole, Ari Lennox) on piano, Elizabeth delivers one of the most spell-binding performances I’ve ever experienced.

Fast forward fifteen years and five books later to today.

Elizabeth has just published My Life as a Prayer: A Multifaith Memoir, her first nonfiction work via Monkfish Book Publishing. In My Life as a Prayer, she “recounts a lifelong spiritual quest full of questions.” Her quest takes her from the Episcopal church that her father led to Quaker meetings, ordination as an interfaith minister and the “eclectic, earth-centered community” that she led at the time that I met her.

In My Life as a Prayer, she reveals the journey of the seeker: her youthful inclinations to resist submission, her lifelong relationships with divergent faith communities and the details of internal ruminations that have enabled her to both respect and revolt from tradition. The book beautifully invokes many of gospel music’s idioms and I thought it was important to have a conversation with Elizabeth about her book and the ways that music, and specifically gospel music, has impacted her. You can order My Life as a Prayer here!

You can watch or listen to our interview below!

Elizabeth and I invoke this song by Dorothy Norwood in our conversation. In case you’ve never heard it, here it is!

Before You Go!

Exclusive Content

I mentioned in last week’s newsletter that I’m beginning to roll out ‘exclusive content’ for paid subscribers. I have made the December edition of the God’s Music Is My Life Radio Show (two hours of traditional gospel music and a word of encouragement from Evangelist Nuana Dunlap) available. The show airs exclusively on DAF Gospel Radio…and once it airs, it’s gone! So this is a perk you don’t want to miss! You can upgrade your subscription here.

Coming Next Week

I recently interviewed the Robin Williams, the son of gospel legend Marion Williams about the documentary he produced, The Legendary Marion Williams, which premiered last year (You can currently watch on Amazon Prime, Tubi and a number of other streaming services). That interview will finally be shared next week. If you aren’t familiar with the music of Marion Williams, let this serve as an introduction.