The Broken Grace of Leonard Cohen

Among the numerous notable passings of 2016, the death of Leonard Cohen was especially poignant for many observers of religion and culture. Cohen's iconic song “Hallelujah” was recently identified as a “secular hymn” in a Journal of Media and Religion article coauthored by three communications scholars at Brigham Young University: professors Steven R. Thomsen and Quint Randle and master's student Matthew Lewis. “While nonreligious in nature or intent,” they write, “the secular hymn is a pop song that allows the listener to experience the numinous by creating an affective state that parallels a spiritual or religious state of mind.”