He is fascinated by biblical material: On his new solo album "Sola Gratia" the US-progger NEAL MORSE deals with the story of the apostle Paul. The parable of the prodigal son, the life of Martin Luther, finding meaning and faith have already been dealt with by him in concept albums. The idea of writing an album about the proverbial transformation of Saul, the persecutor of Christians, into a follower of Jesus and missionary Paul, Neal Morse had been pregnant for quite some time. After "Sola Scriptura" (2007), "Sola Gratia" is his second album, which is titled with a reformatory principle. As Morse explains in the interview, the trigger for this was an acoustic misunderstanding
eclipsed: How did the second "Sola" album come about?
Neal Morse: I've been approached several times by people to set this story to music. Apparently they see me as this concept album guy for biblical stories. (laughs) Earlier this year, I had a bunch of ideas. When I was on a cruise to New Zealand with my wife, Cherie, I got a lot of ideas that I tried out right away. My wife called out of the next room: "That's good, you should make a solo album out of that." But I understood "Sola" and immediately thought that would fit perfectly. After "Sola Scriptura", now "Sola Gratia". Just to anticipate: I ended up with so many ideas that I think I have enough for another album...
eclipsed: What does the story of the apostle Paul mean to you personally?
Morse: A lot! How this evil man changes, changes from a persecutor of Christians and even murderer to a Christian because God turns to him and reaches his heart, is just wonderful
eclipsed: Do you still think they're important today?
Morse: Very important. I think that we people today resemble the Pharisees, the highest scribes of the time, who tended to distinguish themselves from others, in their opinion "defiled". We have a similar attitude: "We are the chosen ones - you are not." The song "Building A Wall" deals with that. It says "We want to build a wall between us and you to keep you out."
eclipsed: That sounds familiar. When writing this, did you have recent events in the USA in mind, cue Trump and the wall at the border to Mexico?
Morse: I already knew that you can draw this comparison, and somehow it fits. But no, I had more the symbolic aspect in mind. This elitist thinking of the highest religious representatives, the closing off of oneself is far away from what Jesus meant when he spoke of the "Kingdom of God". Paul took up this idea of a world without nations
