Divine Moves: Pneumatology as Passionate Participation in U2’s “Mysterious Ways"

U2's song "Mysterious Ways" is an essential case study in any discussion of the religious impulse in the U2 catalog. Released as the second single on their 1991 Achtung Baby (AB) album, it garnered critical acclaim and commercial success. The song has become a staple of their live performance, played over 580 times. Yet over time, the live performance of the song has gone through radical alterations. When first performed, the song included "bizarre projections of a woman's head spinning" (Parra 1994, 141). Quickly the performance evolved to include a live belly dancer. The images, of the dancer moving teasingly always out of Bono's reach, became central to the iconography of the Zoo TV tour (Scrimgeour 2004,84, 94-97). During the Elevation and Vertigo tour, the song included selecting an audience member, generally female, from the crowd to dance with Bono. During the 360° tour, the song was performed shorn of any female participation. The changing performances of "Mysterious Ways" invite a set of questions both musical and theological.