A Christian’s Worldview of Music

A Christian’s Worldview of Music

There was a time in my career when I believed that a music philosophy was always developed before the formation of a music worldview.  Now I understand that worldview, and specifically music worldview, is the window through which musicians view what they believe is the truth about the nature, value and meaning of music.  All Christian musicians have a music worldview but being a Christian does not ensure that one’s worldview of music is truly Christian.  I define music worldview as how a musician perceives the whole of music in terms of what that musician considers the reality of what is right and wrong, appropriate or not appropriate concerning music. A person’s view of music forms that person’s presumed reality about music and musicing.

 This presumed reality is then weaved into a Christian’s music philosophy.  What is weaved into the musician’s philosophy from worldview will strongly shape how the musician views and deals with music in relationship to being in the world. Certainly, every Christian is in the world, but simply being in the world does not mean that a Christian is “of the world”, i.e. is squeezed into the world’s mold philosophically. So a Christian musician who is living in this world with those who think differently about the whole of music may still form a world of music that is faith based. Hopefully, the Christian will not be convinced by those who are not Christians to view the world and music as they do. The way that Christian musicians view the world will strongly influence how they music in this world.