SINGING, IN THE BODY AND IN THE SPIRIT

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Dec 2003 by Guthrie, Steven R

Spirit is that which, far from abolishing, rather maintains and even strengthens particularity. It is not a spirit of merging or assimilation-of homogenization-but of relation in otherness, relation which does not subvert but establishes the other in its true reality.44

This is the point of contact between music and the life of the Church. The unity of the Body of Christ is not a bland, undifferentiated uniformity, but a rich and manifold concord. Music is uniquely equipped to provide an aural image of this kind of community, in which union is not unanimity, nor multiplicity a cacophony. With every resonant sonority, music testifies to the possibility of this sort of life.

For this is a symphony (symphonia), when there resounds in the church a united concord (indiscreta concordia) of differing ages and abilities as if of diverse strings; the psalm is responded to (psalmus respondetur), the amen is said.45

V. SUMMARY

I began by observing that (with the exception of a few traditions) Christians have used music in worship. Why should this be the case? Can we justify this practice theologically?

Augustine suggests that we are drawn to song because it appeals to our senses and our emotions. He also believes that neither sense nor emotion is the highest human faculty.46 It is the mind (animus) that must ascend to God in adoration. "The custom of singing in Church is to be approved," he says, "so that through the delights of the ear the weaker mind [animus] may rise up towards the devotion of worship."47 The practice of music is justified, then, as a concession to our lower faculties. It is a stepping stonenecessary, perhaps, but a stepping stone nevertheless-across which one should move as quickly as possible.

Calvin and Bonhoeffer have slightly different concerns, but for them as for Augustine, music is the servant of the Word. Music has no virtue of its own, but properly directs hearts and minds toward the text. This assessment is at once more positive and more problematic than Augustine's. Music's appeal to the senses is not regarded with as much suspicion, but we are left without any real explanation for song. It may make sense to argue that words are more important than music. It does not make sense to argue that the reason Christians should sing is because words are more important than music.

Drawing on the context of Paul's exhortation to sing in Ephesians 5, I have argued that music makes its own distinctive contribution to Christian life and worship. Whatever support music may offer words, however it may highlight, reinforce or enhance the text, music itself-the music of music-is used in the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Music is a suitable resource in this work, not despite, but because it engages women and men at the level of body and sense. First of all, music enlists body and sense in the praise of God, re-orienting and re-defining these fundamental human endowments, which may once have been used solely for self-gratification. Secondly, singing together involves sensing and responding to others and one's environment. Throughout Ephesians and elsewhere in the New Testament, Paul likens the church to a body. In Ephesians 5, Paul urges husbands to consider how they sense and respond to the needs of their own bodies, and to use this responsiveness as a model for loving their wives. Corporate song is a sensory experience in which we dynamically respond to others, and so, gives these corporeal analogies greater depth and power. Finally, by virtue of the distinctive properties of musical sound, music offers a powerful aural image of life together. In particular, music articulates a kind of unity in which individual distinctiveness is preserved and even enhanced.48