Aesthetics and the Christian Musician Part 9

 

      Aesthetics and the Christian Musician Part 9

           Art is not the doorway to the kingdom of God.  Therefore a Christian must develop a religious approach to the arts rather than an artistic approach to religion.  Beauty in music is also not the doorway to the kingdom of God although words used as a concomitant of instrumental and vocal music is capable of becoming very efficacious spiritually.  Also sacred lyric poetry is a truly meaningful introduction to the kingdom of God.

    Christians are warned in the first chapter of the Book of  Romans to not worship music which is a created thing.  Romans 1:18,19,25, and 28 states,

vs. 18          The wrath of God is being revealed against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness

vs. 19          Since what may be known about God is plain to them.

vs. 25          They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised.  Amen.

vs. 28          Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.  (NIV)

Although the Scripture lesson which is not all quoted here speaks primarily to the sexual sins it also speaks of worshiping created things which includes art and art objects rather than the Creator.  Therefore worshiping aesthetics or any created art forms is nothing less than idolatry!  The Scripture lesson above warns those who worship created things rather than the Creator start by suppressing the truth that Christians must not worship any created thing. 

        Therefore the result of an aesthetic approach to religion is worshiping art for art's sake.  I believe that worshiping art for art’s sake in music worship is the outcome of a faulty praxial view of the place of the arts in worship.  Worship music must derive its significance outside of itself.  If it does not, it is autonomous.  Therefore, a Christocentric Christian aesthetic must derive its significance outside of itself.  A Christian aesthetic view will consequently not derive the same musical import as a secular aesthetic view does.

            I want to make it very clear that I believe that aesthetic beauty in the art of music used in worship is not wrong but, on the contrary, beauty in the arts is one of the proofs that an art form follows biblical principles.  Beauty is a concomitant of God’s orderly creation.  I believe that when God created music as a part of his personal orderly creation that it was very good or beautiful (Genesis 1:31).  Although misguided musicologists and some Christian musicians have purported that the music of the Bible was harsh and ugly, there is not a shred of biblical or extra biblical proof of such an exotic hypothesis.  On the contrary the te’amim (the musical melodies of all Old Testament Scriptures) have proven  that the music of the Bible was very beautiful.  (See chapter Eight of Music in the Bible in Christian Perspective).