Pentecostalism in GOSPEL

Sophocles & Religion

To Sophocles and most ancient Greeks, "the gods" stood in a spirit of unreflecting orthodoxy.

Yet to the dramatist, divinity appeared to represent the natural forces of the universe, to which mortals are unwittingly or unwillingly subject. Humans live for the most part in dark ignorance because they are cut off from these permanent, overarching forces and structures of reality. Only when they come into valid contact with the universal order of things, through trail and crisis, through tragedy and catharsis, can they become more genuinely human, more genuinely themselves.

Oedipus & Church & Catharsis

"I was wandering around a Greek theatre in Anatolia when I was younger, and I asked someone, 'What's this stone?'

"And the person said, 'it's the altar.' And I suddenly realized that it's a church."

...

"It suddenly dawned on me that tragedy is the church, and that it is the connection to a church that is cathartic."

...

"Great performing and great singing are perhaps the key to tragedy. Tragedy was a musical form; it was a popular form; and it was an exciting form."

...

"Empathy - when you emotionally identify, when you are moved, yours is the way of catharsis. We have a decorous image of empathy, the ‘crying at the sad parts and smiling at the glad part,’ but there are more potent forms of empathy."

- Lee Breuer, Getting Off

"Morgan Freeman and I listened to Pentecostal preaching all over Minneapolis, and the guy who eventually played Theseus was a preacher who we found Reverend Earl Miller. He was the guy that Morgan studied in order to learn how to preach." L.B.

Reverend Earl Miller: Actor & Pastor

Rev. Earl Miller as THESEUS/MESSENGER in the 2018 production of GOSPEL.

with Greta Oglesby as Antigone

with Jimmy Carter, the sole remaining original member of the Blind Boys of Alabama

Rev. Earl Miller is the senior pastor of the 1,500-member Pilgrim Baptist Church in St. Paul, Minnesota’s oldest and largest black congregation. He holds a doctor of ministry degree from Union Theological Seminary.

Actor & Pastor - Cast & Congregation

During the show’s run at Guthier Theatre, MN, he performed eight times a week in addition to maintaining his full pastoral load. His preaching offered a model for the style, rhythm, and vocal inflections of the show, and he transformed the production into an avenue for ministry. Two nights a week, he led an introductory Bible study for about ten members of the cast.

“It’s been like taking on another congregation. We’ve grown together as a family, and I’ve become like the spiritual head of the family.”

“[The Bible study] set the tone for the production in general: a good spiritual and moral foundation."

"Redemption & Liberation"

“The central message is one of redemption and liberation, and that is a Christian message. And it is what the black church has been about. The message of the preacher in a traditional black sermon has always ended in celebration, hope, and freedom in Jesus. The way the play ends is the way our worship ends.”

"Fate & Destiny"

“The Old Testament talks about the casting of lots, which determined a person’s destiny. Oedipus’s lot was already cast; he had no choice. As slaves, black people in this country were oppressed … like Oedipus. Our lots were cast. But the play tells us that whatever your lot, there is ultimately redemption.”

"The black religious experience is not just a meeting of the mind. It is a meeting of the whole being. It is not just an intellectual meeting. It is an encounter with the living God." - Reverend Earl Miller

Excerpt from 1986 lecture at Yale

“From the very beginning black preaching was different from white preaching. It broke all the rules of form and organization. One of the main characteristics of black preaching is storytelling. The black preacher must be a master storyteller. In the past there was a script that even those who were illiterate knew. The script was made up from the Bible stories, scriptures and songs that had been passed on. The black preacher not only had to know the script. He had to be able to make the story come alive and at the same time stick with the story because the folk he was preaching to knew the story.

"In black preaching the preacher has to get outside of himself, or in church language, let the spirit take control.

"In order for the people to judge the preacher's call to the ministry authentic, at some point in the sermon he has to lose his cool because he isn't supposed to be in charge anyway.

"Black preaching is body and soul. Black preaching like black religion is holistic. It engages the whole person.

"One of the clear things we can say is that the black religious experience is not just a meeting of the minds. It is an encounter with the living God. When we first started serving God, we didn't serve him with our words, we didn't serve him with our ideas, we danced him. We praised him with our whole being.

"What implications does this have for drama? Well, in reality, what I do every Sunday is drama, but I am performing for the Lord.”

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