Open up the Doors
Music in the Modern Church
by Mark Evans
Paperback (Published)
(December 2006)
ISBN: 9781845531874
6.14 x 9.21 inches
Price: $29.95
In stock
This book surveys the music used in churches around the world today in the context of the history of western congregational song and concludes that music, like other cultural elements of contemporary Christianity, has been widely secularized.
Within the Judaeo-Christian tradition -with few exceptions- music has always been central to the performance of sacred rites. The musical setting of liturgy has its roots in the earliest customs of the church and the practice has continued to evolve up to the present day. As the contemporary church in many Western societies grapples with the divisive issues of gay clergy or female ordination, just as divisive a schism appears to be in progress in the world of church music. On the traditional side are those that keep the ancient choral traditions alive. They face the new, intense informality of the evangelical wing who embrace a plainer more approachable music but who are not themselves without controversy, owing to the struggle between the secular forces from which their new forms of church music derive and the messages they wish to propagate and who are also, it often seems, drawn to fundamentalist and reactionary politics. This book surveys the music used in churches around the world today in the context of the history of western congregational song and concludes that music, like other cultural elements of contemporary Christianity, has been widely secularized. This secularization is a global phenomenon fed by the explosive growth of the contemporary church music industry (worth more than $900 million in annual sales) which has seen the large secular music companies acquiring independent labels, in many cases, to the distress of the faithful. By analyzing the tensions and controversies that are fuelling this crisis and leading to the breakdown of traditions that have been the backbone Christian tradition for centuries, the book questions whether the theoretical and practical problems aroused by this crisis can ever be surmounted.
Table of Contents
Prelims
Acknowledgements ix – xiv
Introduction 1 – 7
1. Contextualising Contemporary Congregational Music 8 – 23
2. ‘Nothing New Under the Sun’: Learning from History 24 – 44
3. Ending the Corporate Worship Wars 45 – 65
4. Resistance or Accommodation: The ‘World’ of Quality 66 – 86
5. The Rise and Rise of Pentecostal Music: History, Hillsong and Star Texts 87 – 109
6. Theo-musicological Frameworks for Congregational Song Analysis 110 – 135
7. Corporate Worship Gets Personal 136 – 157
8. Conclusion: ‘When the Music Fades’ 158 – 169
End Matter
Appendix: Song Classification and Analysis 170 – 182
Notes 183 – 194
Bibliography 195 – 202
Index to Bible References 203 – 204
Subject Index 205 – 209
- By (author) Mark Evans
Other Titles in this Series
Dub In Babylon
Understanding the Evolution and Significance of Dub Reggae in Jamaica and Britain from King Tubby to Post-punk
Similar Books
‘For You I Study, For You I Work, For You I Live, For You I Am Ready To Even Give My Life’
Essays in Honour of Francis (Frank) J Moloney, SDB
Ars Prophetica
Theology in the Poetry of Twentieth-Century Hebrew Poets Avraham Halfi, Shin Shalom, Amir Gilboa, and T. Carmi
As Messianism Turns to Heresy
The Regenstein Chair Lectures On Lurianic Kabbalah and Shabbatai Tzevi at Hebrew Union College - Cincinnati
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
Fear, Fear of God, God-Fearers
Philological and Historical Perspectives on the World of Ancient Judaism and Christianity
