With the release of her 'Theology' double CD, SINEAD O'CONNOR was willing to talk to Cross Rhythms' Tony Cummings.

Tony: Let me run something past you here: how would you respond to an evangelical definition of Christianity? Now, if somebody asked me or my pastor or somebody, "What's a Christian?" we'd say something like this: some one who believes that Jesus Christ died on the cross for sins and through that belief, have received the Holy Spirit and through that Spirit we can have a relationship with God the Father. More or less, that's the standard Protestant declaration of faith. Do you have any problems with that?

Sinead: No, not at all! I don't have any problem with any way in which a person gets to conduct an intimate relationship with whatever it is that they call God.

Tony: So it's not that that is incorrect but where such definitions fall down is that they tend to be exclusive - saying that that's the only way.

Sinead: Yes, I see what you're saying! That's again what I mean by the idea of God being held hostage and being told when it can come out to love some one and when it can come out not to love some one. In any type of theology you have positive and negative - the same exists within each of us as individuals. There are things about me that I don't agree with and there are things that I do - do you know what I mean? But if we were to abandon everything or every one that has something we don't agree with ... well, we'd be very lonesome!

Tony: One of the major Protestant theologians said recently that the paradigm shift in Protestant Christianity is that where once most Protestant Christians believed they'd arrived somewhere spiritually, now they believe they're on the journey, spiritually. Now that gives you some room for hope doesn't it because if you believe that you are on a journey then you're not claiming that you've got it all done and dusted as far as your theology goes!

Sinead: Absolutely! Also my understanding of what it is to be a Christian - I mean it may be childish but my understanding is simply that if you're a Christian you're someone who understands the idea of unconditional love, to try to exercise unconditional love for yourself and everyone else where you are able to do that.

Tony: But I think that certainly Christians from my tradition would say we have a love affair with Jesus Christ - we are in love with the Lord Jesus whereas within a Catholic tradition, you could sometimes say the same about Mary, couldn't you?

Sinead: Yes - although you know, Mary would be a kind of "C" list if you like compared to Jesus. I think that we obviously would have God as being the main feature.

Tony: Could you imagine a time when you could record a whole album of songs about Jesus?

Sinead: Well actually that is something that I would really love to do! But it's something that would have to be handled extremely delicately. Whether it's right or wrong people could be turned off. Sometimes you say the word Jesus to people and they run a million miles.

Tony: Yet despite that you've done a whole album largely based on Scripture references. I'm sure there are people in some parts of the music industry who are saying that is commercial suicide to do that kind of thing.

Sinead: Yes, well I suppose that the thing is with me I feel that when you are dealing with religious music, there's a very fine line between corny and cool and you've got to make sure that you can stay on the right side of that line if you want to appeal to the audience that doesn't really want to know about God or Jesus or anything. Obviously those are the ones that you kinda most want to appeal to 'cos you don't want to be singing to the choir. I like the idea of creating spaces where God can exist outside of religion also because I don't think it's right that if you don't believe in religion that means that you have no God or no right of access to God. But the long and the short of it, yes, I would actually love to do some New Testament music but it's something that I would want to take a lot of time about and really stitch it together very delicately so as not to buy into any prejudices that people have - good or bad prejudices because I suppose that we all have a particularly individual relationship with Jesus - that's a very private and intimate relationship. Mine isn't the same as yours and yours isn't the same as the next person's.

Tony: My own spiritual experience is that when I converted to Christianity, a good few years ago now, the Spirit, to use the terminology I used at the time, began to convict me of things that the Scripture teaches are wrong so that things like sexual immorality, smoking dope, even swearing stopped happening in my life. Has that been your experience?

Sinead: In Ireland we are taught, or have been certainly since I was small, this idea of the Trinity. I don't know that they have the same in the Protestant religion -the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It's a very hard thing to put words on, but you have an innate understanding of the nature of God being actually these three beings and I would say that since I was a very, very small child, I've had a very close relationship with the Three in One if you like. I've always been fascinated with the idea of the Holy Spirit. I like the symbolism of the bird - again it being something that can fly free and go wherever it likes - it's not hidden behind walls or rules or regulations. I've always had a very, very intimate relationship with Jesus actually since I was a very small kid. I was in very difficult circumstances growing up - I grew up in a very violent situation and so Jesus was actually someone that really I clung to actually in the experience of violence. So I've always had that experience, but at the same time while being very linked to those things, I would still have gone through the normal phases and stages I thing that people go through - swearing, smoking dope and in a way I really believe that as long as you are not hurting anyone, I don't really believe that God or Jesus particularly minds if you use bad language or if you smoke a bit of dope now and then. I think it's down to 'are you true to yourself, are you honestly you and do you do your best in life not to cause hurt to any one including you?'