Posts Tagged ‘Music’
“A New Song for an Old World” (Excerpt 6)
More excerpts from Calvin R. Stapert’s book, A New Song for an Old World. Previous excerpts: One • Two • Three • Four • Five The purpose of this series is to open our eyes to the similarity between conservative or fundamentalist views of modern music debates and the views of ancient church leaders. The…
Read More“A New Song for an Old World” (Excerpt 5)
More excerpts from Calvin R. Stapert’s book, A New Song for an Old World. Previous excerpts: One • Two • Three • Four “As I have observed above, the wedding festivities of Christians in Antioch were often more pagan than Christian. Christians were reluctant to abandon objectionable pagan customs at their weddings. These customs included…
Read MoreValues and Music: A Theological Perspective (Part 5)
Gerald Priest, Ph.D. This is the fifth part of five.. Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 Part 1 points out that the first and most important criteria in making musical choices is theological: does my music please God? Part 2 argues that music is moral since it originated in God…
Read MoreValues and Music: A Theological Perspective (Part 4)
Gerald Priest, Ph.D. This is the fourth part of five. Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 Part 1 points out that the first and most important criteria in making musical choices is theological: does my music please God? Part 2 argues that music is moral since it originated in God and thus its…
Read More“A New Song for an Old World” (excerpt 4)
More excerpts from Calvin R. Stapert’s book, A New Song for an Old World. Previous excerpts: One • Two • Three “The church fathers recognized music’s power to calm the passions (negative sense). But Evagrius meant something more profound than what ‘easy-listening’ or dentist-office music calls to mind when he said, ‘Psalmody lays the passions…
Read MoreValues and Music: A Theological Perspective (Part 3)
Gerald Priest, Ph.D. This is the third part of five. Part 1 • Part 2 In Part 1, Dr. Priest points out that the first and most important criteria in making musical choices is theological: does my music please God? In Part 2, Dr. Priest argues that music is moral since it originated in God…
Read More“A New Song for an Old World” (excerpt 3)
This week we offer a bit more of Calvin R. Stapert in his book, A New Song for an Old World. Previous excerpts can be found here and here. “Several themes that we have heard somewhat faintly in the second and third centuries become very strong in the fourth. Two of these will be prominent…
Read MoreValues and Music: A Theological Perspective (Part 2)
Gerald Priest, Ph.D. This is the second part of five. Part 1 can be found here. In Part 1, Dr. Priest points out that the first and most important criteria in making musical choices is theological: does my music please God? To begin, music is not amoral; apart from any lyrics, music conveys a message.…
Read MoreMore from “A New Song for an Old World”
Last week we offered some comments from Clement of Alexandria on music, as quoted by Calvin R. Stapert in A New Song for an Old World. For your Monday morning, we offer a bit more of Stapert, addressing the modern music wars with thoughts from the ancient world.
Read MoreValues and Music: A Theological Perspective (Part 1)
Gerald Priest, Ph.D. This article is part of a larger article by Dr. Priest, divided into five parts. I want to express briefly my own theology of music and the values related to it. I am not a musician, but then most Christians are not. But we are musical, and therefore should have a Christian…
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