As reported by Gene Edward Veith, Bono sounds like C.S. Lewis in this excerpt from the book Bono in Conversation:
Then the interviewer marvels, "The Son of God who takes away the sins of the world. I wish I could believe in that."
"The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on
the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us,
and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death," replies
Bono. "It’s not our own good works that get us through the gates of
Heaven."The interviewer marvels some more: "That’s a great idea,
no denying it. Such great hope is wonderful, even though it’s close to
lunacy, in my view. Christ has His rank among the world’s great
thinkers. But Son of God, isn’t that farfetched?"Bono comes back, "Look, the secular response to the
Christ story always goes like this: He was a great prophet, obviously a
very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great
prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually
Christ doesn’t allow you that. He doesn’t let you off that hook. Christ
says, No. I’m not saying I’m a teacher, don’t call me teacher. I’m not
saying I’m a prophet. I’m saying: ‘I’m the Messiah.’ I’m saying: ‘I am
God incarnate.’ . . . So what you’re left with is either Christ was who
He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase. . . . The idea that
the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have
its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me that’s
farfetched."