Christian Musicians Have an Enemy-part 2

 

Christian Musicians Have an Enemy-part 2

          Now, for just a moment, let’s take a look at how thesis thought slowly evolved into synthesis thinking.  Under classical philosophy, philosophers thought in terms of the truth which was thesis and the opposite of truth which was antithesis.  For instance, they believed that God created and that Satan perverted.  God was completely good and Satan was completely evil because he was the complete antithesis of God.  This type of philosophy always produced a unified field of knowledge.  However, sometime during the 20^th century some philosophers began to doubt that a person in this rationally absurd world could come to a knowledge of right and wrong. 

So, Christian philosophy in the 20^th century was divided between those who still believed in right and wrong in church music and others who believed that church music answers could only be found somewhere in between right and wrong, since they did not believe that terms like “wrong”, “unsuitable”, or “inappropriate” were appropriate when applied to music in public worship.  They accepted Hegelian philosophy that taught that the unified whole was always found in reconciling the opposites (thesis and antithesis) in what he called synthesis.  During the late 20^th century, Christian church musicians flocked to this concept of synthesis.  Historically the church had always believed in right and wrong.  The church had always prescribed what was appropriate and inappropriate in church music.  (See Chapter 7 on A Prescriptive Approach to Music Ministry in Church Music Matters.)  As church musicians developed a philosophy based on synthesis thinking the church no longer had the right to say that a style of music was or was not appropriate for public worship.