A Biblical Understanding of Culture and Music

According to Lifeway Research, “The worst thing pastors can do is use the time they have in the pulpit—time for unfolding the glories of God in the gospel of Christ—to instead moralize about music… Scripture doesn’t speak directly to what elements of pop culture we should engage, because the artifacts of pop culture in the Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman worlds of the Bible were much different.”¹

Should Pastors stop preaching biblical truth regarding the morality of music merely because of cultural differences and the assumption that the Bible is silent regarding what elements of pop culture are permissible for Christians to engage in? The question should be whether God wants us to follow biblical or cultural relevance pertaining to all of life, including musical choice. The answer to this question will shape our worldview, teaching, and lifestyle within and outside the church.

Culture Defined

When God created mankind, He also created culture since “culture happens when humans interact with the world.”² These two entities are inseparable, as culture identifies an individual’s or a group of people’s traditions, practices, and beliefs. After the Fall, man retains the image of God, but that image is marred. Therefore, human culture has morally good and bad aspects (Genesis 1:27-28; 1 John 2:15-17). Hence, cultural issues are matters of morality and should be dealt with in our preaching, teaching, and writing.

Culture Displayed in Music

Historically and currently, cultural anthropologists identify three primary subcultures: Folk, high, and popular/mass. According to musicologists, these subcultures also identify the three main musical genres. Folk culture displays the culture of the common people of the industrial working class. Its music, primarily folk songs, displays both traditionalism and nationalism in both its music and lyrics, and defines geographical regions familiar to cultural anthropologists. Folk music is accessible, easy to learn, and suitable for Christian hymnody. “Amazing Grace,” “Come Thou Fount,” and “There is a Fountain,” are examples of hymn texts wedded with folk tunes. Interestingly, one writer states that Handel’s music “inspired a reawakening of true religious feeling” and influenced the character of the Victorian era.³ The Calvinistic Methodist movement and other revivals, including the Welsh Revival, influenced the nation so that Christian music became the country’s folk music. Eventually, Ralph Vaughn Williams rescued and advocated using traditional English folk melodies in worship. His efforts resulted in the successful publication of The English Hymnal, which aimed to contain hymns of the highest excellence in the English language.

In contrast to folk culture, high culture “contains knowledge which is far more significant than anything that can be absorbed from the channels of popular communication.”⁴ This includes classical music, which is associated with high culture and displays complexity, thought, and intellect. Against the backdrop of high culture’s multigenerational and communal aspects, classical music composers seek to write in a way that communicates transcendence and timelessness. According to educators, popular culture is the “distractions, activities, and foci of life.”⁵ John Storey, a cultural anthropologist, states that popular/pop culture is inferior to high culture, well-liked and accepted by many people, and hopelessly commercial.⁶ Musicologist John Sheinbaum writes that pop culture’s music (pop music) “merely engages the emotions.”⁷

Music and Globalization

Interestingly, cultural anthropologists and musicologists agree that popular culture and its music are ubiquitous, resulting in globalization.⁸ While globalization has connotations with commerce, such as McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, it is often considered a homogenized world culture in its worldview and way of life. Globalization weakens traditional and folk cultures, which are replaced by a watered-down mix of indigenous and popular culture.⁹ For example, in Mongolia, the government once considered Western-style pop music “subversive,” but today, this music, along with its culture, dominates in Mongolia.¹⁰ The spread and acceptance of pop music are displayed in countries worldwide. This led to the decline of folk and classical music worldwide. Even in churches worldwide, the music of globalism dominates weaker indigenous music. This includes the music of Hillsong and Bethel, as music scholars agree that their sound represents much of the music used in churches globally, regardless of indigenous culture.¹¹ Due to this globalization of pop music in our churches, T.D. Gordon, author of Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns, suggests that “unless an individual chooses to listen to different kinds of music, the only thing that individual will hear (most of the time) is pop.”¹² Therefore, he encourages individuals to develop their musical senses intentionally or, by default, the current popular culture “will shape them to prefer pop.”¹³

Christians and Pop Culture

However, Christians have been creating “an extensive parallel popular culture complete with Christian rock bands…and using it to market Jesus.”¹⁴ Instead, God commands us to separate from the philosophy and lifestyle of culture that displays unbiblical and worldly sentiments (Romans 12:1-2). Further, God’s Word instructs us not to love the world nor desire its sinful attractions (I Jn. 2:15-17). “Kosmos” (world) refers to an entity that is hostile to God and ruled by Satan (Eph. 2:2). This includes its ideologies, such as globalization and cultural relativism, as well as its way of life, including musical listening habits. Further, Christ states believers are not of the world, and He prays that they will keep themselves from the world’s evil (Jn. 17:15-16). Perhaps “the present evil world” (Gal. 1:4), the evil part of culture, applies to the pop culture of our day. Martin Luther followed this truth by rejecting music in his day that displayed “debased secular forms such as dance and drinking songs” and “rhythms too intense for use in the church.”¹⁵

Pop Culture Influences High and Folk Cultures

The elements of pop culture have affected the high and folk cultures. Although musicologists establish that high and folk cultures are rooted in traditions, antiquity, and absolutes, both cultural anthropologists write that pop culture has influenced some classical music and folk music, resulting in “corruption (in these genres) over the centuries.”¹⁶

Musicologists concur and write about how pop music’s elements influenced classical composers such as Ravel, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and Hindemith and affected their music through its ideologies and sound. Music scholar John Sheinbaum even states that postmodernist classical music (twentieth century-present) displays styles far beyond traditional classical music, “such as jazz, rock, and hip-hop.”¹⁷

Conclusion

Considering these biblical principles regarding music and culture, and support from secular cultural anthropologists and musicologists, I believe God desires us to cultivate a culture/lifestyle, including musical choices, based on scripture rather than pop culture’s current trends, opinions, and philosophies. Since the Bible is timeless, God has chosen not to give us all the specific instances and situations within our current culture that we can participate in. However, we, as believers, should commit to a careful, comprehensive study of God’s Word to come to a proper understanding of the morally good and bad aspects of culture that we may live in a manner that “proves what is acceptable unto the Lord” within our current changing culture (Ephesians 5:10).

Previously in this series:

The Christian and Culture – Proclaim & Defend

A Biblical Understanding of Worship – Proclaim & Defend

A Biblical Understanding of Music – Proclaim & Defend

A Biblical Understanding of Musical Controversies – Proclaim & Defend

---

Erik Hanson holds a DMin. in Preaching and Leadership and serves as Assistant Pastor at Stanfordville Baptist Church in Hallstead, PA

---

Photo by Gabriella Clare Marino on Unsplash

1. Taylor Combs, “How Should Christians Be Discipled to Engage Pop Culture? Lifeway Research” [↩]
2. Jeff Myers, Understanding the Culture, (Colorado Springs, CO: Summit Ministries, 2017), 62. [↩]
3. Harry Eskew and Hugh T. McElrath, Sing with Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Hymnody (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1980), 225-226. [↩]
4. Roger Scruton, Modern Culture (New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013), 2. [↩]
5. Jenn Brandt and Callie Clare, Popular Culture in the US: People, Politics, and Power (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022), 7. [↩]
6. John Storey, Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction (New York: Routledge, 2021), 5-13. [↩]
7. John J. Sheinbaum, Good Music: What it is and Who Gets to Decide (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019), 23. [↩]
8. Roy Shuker, Understanding Popular Music Culture (New York: Routledge, 2016), 244-259. [↩]
9. John Storey, Inventing Popular Culture, (Maiden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2003), 116-117. [↩]
10. Sender Dovchin, Language, Media, and Globalization in the Periphery: The Linguascapes of Popular Music in Mongolia (New York: Routledge, 2018), 1-22. [↩]
11. Tanya Riches and Alexander Douglas, “Hillsong and Black: The Ethics of Style, Representation, and Identity in the Hillsong Megachurch,” Ethics and Christian Musicking, eds. Nathan Myrick and Mark Porter (New York: Routledge Press, 2021), 145. [↩]
12. Mark Moring, “Pop Goes the Worship Christianity Today Religion professor T. David Gordon says Muzak has shaped singing in church.” accessed October 7, 2022 [↩]
13. Ibid. [↩]
14. Kenneth A. Myers, All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes: Christians and Popular Culture, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1989), 18-19. [↩]
15. Scott Aniol, Worship in Song: A Biblical Philosophy of Music and Worship (Winona Lake, IN: BMH Books, 2009), 65. [↩]
16. Myers, 59. [↩]
17. Sheinbaum, 11. [↩]