Who among us has not experienced hearing a song that moved us deeply, that spoke to us in a truly spiritual way? Millions of fans around the world have found that inspiration in the music of U2, arguably the biggest band in the world today. On the heels of their latest studio album "No Line on the Horizon," comes this engaging and informative examination of the spirituality that drives the band and its music. The author, who interviewed the fledgling band on their second U.S. tour, takes us from their upbringing in Ireland [three of the four band members were involved with a charismatic Christian community in Ireland], to their dominance over the music scene in the early 1990s, and then to their role as spiritual ambassadors to post-9/11 America. Throughout we get a picture of the spirituality that flows out of U2's music and how their influence has spread beyond music into social justice issues such as AIDS activism, debt relief for developing nations, and the crisis in Darfur. While U2's music clearly addresses Christian themes, unlike the Beatles' John Lennon, it does not claim to be bigger than Jesus.

"There are a lot of reasons to listen to music, but one of the best is that a good song is like a portal into a whole realm of human experience." --from the foreword by Brian McLaren