Music Its Theologies And Spiritualities

This volume is an exploration of the varied and sometimes unrecognized ways in which music—especially in ritual contexts—can serve as both a spiritual conduit as well as a theological source. With topics ranging from a Congolese choir in Ireland to the Orthodox chant in Georgia, from postmodern reflections on new Passion compositions to reflections on the sacramentality of Black gospel music, this volume offers a rich plumbing of very diverse yet well researched musical traditions—case studies from around the globe—for their spiritual and theological contributions.

The flourishing of religious or spiritually-inspired music in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries remains largely unexplored. The engagement and tensions between modernism and tradition, and institutionalized religion and spirituality are inherent issues for many composers who have sought to invoke spirituality and Otherness through contemporary music. Contemporary Music and Spirituality provides a detailed exploration of the recent and current state of contemporary spiritual music in its religious, musical, cultural and conceptual-philosophical aspects. At the heart of the book are issues that consider the role of secularization, the claims of modernity concerning the status of art, and subjective responses such as faith and experience. The contributors provide a new critical lens through which it is possible to see the music and thought of Cage, Ligeti, Messiaen, Stockhausen as spiritual music. The book surrounds these composers with studies of and by other composers directly associated with the idea of spiritual music (Harvey, Gubaidulina, MacMillan, Pärt, Pott, and Tavener), and others (Adams, Birtwistle, Ton de Leeuw, Ferneyhough, Ustvolskaya, and Vivier) who have created original engagements with the idea of spirituality. Contemporary Music and Spirituality is essential reading for humanities scholars and students working in the areas of musicology, music theory, theology, religious studies, philosophy of culture, and the history of twentieth-century culture.

This volume is an exploration of the varied and sometimes unrecognized ways in which music--especially in ritual contexts--can serve as both a spiritual conduit as well as a theological source. With topics ranging from a Congolese choir in Ireland to the Orthodox chant in Georgia, from postmodern reflections on new Passion compositions to reflections on the sacramentality of Black gospel music, this volume offers a rich plumbing of very diverse yet well researched musical traditions--case studies from around the globe--for their spiritual and theological contributions.

God started music, and music ends at him. This study of music provides fundamental references to help build you and your comprehension of what you are doing when you activate music. This builds your intention/purpose of music to the truth and spirit. This builds your knowledge of what music in reality is. This builds an increase to your knowledge and personality. This surely builds you as a person and will add to your conscious experience of God and music.

The relationship between Christian theology and music has been complex since the early days of the Church. The search for the soul led to an increasing body of literature in on spirituality. This book is an attempt to open up a conversation between these related discourses, with contributions reflecting a range of perspectives within them.

Music as Prayer explores the spiritual and theological character of church music. Author Thomas H. Troeger--a theologian, preacher, poet and flutist-traces how making and listening to music can be an act of prayer, a way of sensing the irrepressible resilience of the divine vitalities, in down-to-earth language that everyone can enjoy. The book employs a wide range of perspectives: from scientific observations about the effect of music on the brain, to the insights of early church fathers about the place of music in worship, to the compositions of great composers and their reflections upon their art, to the Bible and theologians, to organists, choir directors and instrumentalists, to hymnists and poets. Listening to the wisdom of these varied tribes, Troeger finds them to be a cloud of witnesses, a choir giving testimony to how music puts the human heart in touch with the spirit in times of sorrow and seeking, in times of joy and gratitude. The book is addressed to listeners and performers alike, instrumentalists and singers, clergy and seminarians, worship committees and congregation members, scholars and teachers of liturgy and sacred music. It helps musicians and clergy to develop a mutual understanding of the theological and spiritual dimensions of their collaborative work. As a whole, the book celebrates the ministry of making music that awakens people to those gifts of the spirit that sustain hope, promote healing, and enliven a visionary faith in the possibility of a transformed world.

Vibrant worship music is part of the Charismatic liturgy all around the world, and has become in many ways the hallmark of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity. Despite its centrality, scholarly interest in the theological and ritual significance of worship for pentecostal spirituality has been sparse, not least in Africa. Combining rich theoretical and theological insight with an in-depth case study of worship practices in Nairobi, Kenya, this interdisciplinary study offers a significant contribution to knowledge and is bound to influence scholarly discussions for years to come. The book is a must-read for anyone interested in Pentecostal worship, ritual, and spirituality.

"The conversation between music and theology, dormant for too long in recent years, is at last gathering pace. And rightly so. There will always be theologians who will regard music as a somewhat peripheral concern, too trivial to trouble the serious scholar, and in any case almost impossible to engage because of its notorious resistance to words and concepts. But an increasing number are discovering again what many of our forbears realized centuries ago, that the kinship between this pervasive feature of human life and the search for a Christian 'intelligence of faith' is intimate and ineradicable. Maeve Heaney's ambitious, wide-ranging, and energetic book pushes the conversation further forward still. Her approach is unapologetically theological, grounded in the passions and concerns of mainstream doctrinal theology. And yet she is insisting . . . that music must be given its due place in the ecology of theology. Although convinced that music should not be set up as a rival to linguistic or conceptual articulation, let alone swallow up 'traditional' modes of theological language and thought, she is equally convinced that music is an irreducible means of coming to terms with the world, a unique vehicle of world-disclosure, and as such, can generate a particular form of 'understanding': 'there are things which God may only be saying through music.' If this is so, it is incumbent on the theologian to listen." --Jeremy Begbie, from the Foreword