In my post on this subject today my observations were mainly descriptive, simply noting the stark moral juxtapositions in the music of Johnny Cash and in the man himself. Johnny Cash was both sinner and saint. And his music reflected that.
Mark's reflections go deeper. Specifically, Mark notes that in light of our dual nature--that we are, in Martin Luther's formulation, simultaneously both sinner and saint--it's often hard to forge a coherent identity. For Johnny Cash the task was how to reconcile his outlaw image with the saint.
In Mark's view, Cash achieved this reconciliation when his outlaw image was replaced with suffering, best exemplified in Cash's late recordings with Rick Rubin. As Mark argues it, Cash eventually found a coherent identity when he shifted away from outlaw/saint to sufferer/saint. And in this trajectory Mark sees the shape of the gospel.
You can read Mark's reflections here: Johnny Cash, Outlaw, Sufferer and the Gospel.
