Culture watch.

The American soldier who narrates the title track captures this resignation perfectly. Even though everyone wants to take a righteous stand, the soldier admits he doesn't know who to trust. "I've got my finger on the trigger," he repeats, but the statement is more of a plea than a threat, because "tonight faith just ain't enough." Absent is the pretense that we might be able to change our rates in a world that seems to have scripted our lives. All that remains inside us are "devils and dust."

THE PRINCIPALITIES and powers in 2005 don't feel much different than they did in 1975 or 1982. Springsteen continues to narrate our nation's story by uncovering the cumulative effect of life in the wilderness. After decades of dreams and resistance, the problems seem as insurmountable as ever.

As Christians, we claim hope over desperation and life over death. This is an album about that choice. The few upbeat and hopeful voices on Devils & Dust don't dream of exacting revenge on the authority figures who have held them back. They find their peace in memories of romance or loving families.

To be sure, Devils & Dust is neither the left-wing polemic that many anticipated after Springsteen's involvement with the Vote for Change Tour, nor the Christ-haunted masterpiece that some of us have fruitlessly awaited, but there are strands of both those elements throughout this album.

"Reason to Believe," the closing track on Nebraska, has been the first or second song of nearly all of Springsteen's solo concerts this summer. "[A]t the end of every hard-earned day," he marvels, "people find some reason to believe." While stopping far short of an altar call, Springsteen leaves us with the suggestion that perhaps there is something to be said for reaching the end of the line and turning, at long last, to the only being greater than the divisive and disorienting forces we can't seem to outrun on our own.

Dave Allen is development assistant at Sojourners.