A Theology of Music in Worship: Practice, Experience, and Meaning

Abstract

This thesis gives a theological account of music in worship. It draws on insights from musicology – particularly a series of resources known as the ‘new musicology’ – which emphasise the practical, embodied, affective, experiential, and epistemic nature of music. It observes substantial consonances between these insights and theological accounts of other Christian practices: language, liturgy, and prayer. And it notes, through the means of qualitative research, the way such insights recognisably relate to music in worship as it experienced and understood by ordinary Christians. It is from these musicological insights, theological accounts, and articulations of ordinary practice that this thesis draws, to interrogate the theological significance of the many ways in which music in worship is practised, experienced, and understood.

Against the backdrop of a growing body of literature at the intersection of music and theology – literature which predominantly treats music as a series of works – this thesis advocates for closer attention to the creaturely realities of music-making. It contends that music in worship is a fallible, finite, and risky gift, comprised of many practices, activities, and objects – each of which is meaningfully implicated in the life of the church. It suggests that music in worship is experienced in an extensive variety of ways, and these experiences may play a wide range of roles in the formation and worship of the body of Christ. It argues that the pluriform meanings associated with music make it a poor source for doctrinal theology, but that music can nonetheless help its participants to know something of God. And it notes the places where the practices and activities that comprise music fall short, creating distance between self, other, and God. In so doing, it observes the realities of music in worship, as it is really instantiated, and takes seriously the theological significance of these realities.