Spirit in the Sky

Jeff Crosby is president and CEO of ECPA, the trade association of Christian publishing, and has spent four decades in the world of words as a bookseller, publisher, and author. His writing has appeared in numerous magazines and journals including Books & Culture, Bookstore Journal, and Publishers Weekly. He is the author of several books, including World of Words: A Spirituality of Reading (2025) and The Language of the Soul: Meeting God in the Longings of Our Hearts (2023). He lives in Chicagoland, USA.

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Listening to the Wind1. Paul Simon and Simon and Garfunkel: Graceland2. Cat Stevens: On the Road to Find Out3. Bill Withers: Lean On Me4. Judee Sill: Jesus Was a Cross Maker5. The Beatles and George Harrison: All Things Must Pass6. Bruce Cockburn: Lord of the Starfields7. Pink Floyd: The Great Gig in the Sky8. Mavis Staples and the Staple Singers: I’ll Take You There9. Bob Dylan: I Feel a Change Coming On;10. Van Morrison: A Sense of Wonder 11. Mickey Newbury: A Long Road Home12. Laura Nyro: Stoned Soul Picnic13. Seals and Crofts: We May Never Pass This Way (Again)14. Chris Rea: Tell Me There’s a Heaven15. Brooks Williams: All That is Gold16. Tracy Chapman: Mountains of Things17. Marvin Gaye: What’s Going On?Epilogue: Crafting a Tapestry of FaithNotes

Jeff Crosby's writing is spacious, inviting readers to recover from their own lives the times music helped them over rough spots, propelled them toward greater insights, led them toward joy. At another level, Crosby, by his own admission, is a spiritual seeker who struggles with doubt and ambiguity while also chafing at the certainties of religious dogma. Over and over he tells us how music has instead helped him to embrace mystery, to be a quester and questioner, to—in Van Morrison's words—be 'a soul in wonder', a 'dweller on the threshold'. Crosby helps us understand that thresholds are the leading edges of spiritual growth and are surrounded by the vibrations of music that both challenge and comfort us.