Theology Thursday - Worship Music

Theology Thursday is an in-depth look at a Biblical or
theological subject.

[@CrabtreeJK]

What an amazing job working through this difficult discussion! You brought to light many issues and things to think about. Here are just a few of my favorite pull quotes: "Public worship music needs to be singable by a lot of people who are together." - Dr. Smith "Even Amazing Grace was new" - Dr. Smith ----great point, great quote Music History Nugget: This debate has been raging for almost all of notated music history. You can more specifically blame the 1700s for the development of the terms secular and sacred. The Enlightenment era, the Classical era in music history, started to distinguish music sung in church verse music sung for pleasure. The terms used to mark the different styles are secular and sacred. Church music, up to this point in history, was the driving force in the development of new styles. With the growth of Enlightenment ideas came a growing trend for church music to favor traditionalism - easy melody, four-part strophic, homophonic (hymn) writing. Interestingly enough, the composers within the Catholic church adapted popular, "secular" styles of writing that were being used in theatrical performances. The protestant church, in particular the movements in America, adopted the New England Psalm-Singer (1770) written by William Billings, which looks a lot like hymns that Charles Wesley wrote. You might call this the "Worship War" of 1700. Burkholder, J. P., Grout, D. J., & Palisca, C. V. "A history of western music." 10th ed. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2019. pg 486. (It was serendipitous that I was building my lecture for a University class while you posted this video! Your direction inspired me to add a little something to help bring this idea to our current time. Thank you!)

[@SojournerDidimus]

How do you see Oceans as good in theology? Personally I see some metaphor used that is neither originating from the Bible nor explained in the song itself. As such, whenever it is sung, I am silent, as I cannot say an Amen to it.