What is Theology and who does it?

This spring I graduated from Providence University College with a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical and Theological studies. I know without a shadow of a doubt that I will be pursuing further education and theological training throughout my life but unfortunately for me, that means alienation from most members of my home faith community. Theology as a discipline is misunderstood, doubted, and ultimately dismissed - and the practitioners of such a discipline are looked at askance as being at risk of losing their faith. Roger Olson has recently written a series of posts exploring this which I have included links to below. I found that, while I have not reached the PhD level in this field, I am already beset by the attitudes and prejudices he describes. Theology is the lifeblood of healthy churches, the worst thing Christians can do (so of course it is the very thing we do), is remove it from our church life. If I could make a tentative gesture towards what I believe my vocational calling is in life, it would be to work towards rectifying this theologically and therefore spiritually bankrupt position the church has landed itself in. I hope these posts of Olson's challenge and encourage you.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3
(*To the list of theologians at the end of Part 3, I think a must add would be Stanley Hauerwas.)

Form Matters: a Suggestion for the Leading of Corporate Worship

I would like to begin this discussion of the use of music in Christian worship with an historical survey of three major forms of music that have been used in western worship throughout church history. (Disclaimer, these descriptions are rather simplistic, as it would take far too long to fully establish how each of these forms came to be established and for that I apologize in advance).

The first of these forms is chant. Before the development of harmony in tonal music, chants were used as the music of the Church. Originally derived from the Jewish practice of chanting Torah and the Psalms, Christianity used chants in worship from its earliest expressions. Chant remained the dominant form of worship for the church through to the Middle Ages and is still used in many traditions today. While musically rather unsophisticated, chant is easy for worshippers to learn as it utilizes simple melodies and is written to fit the shape of the text. This form is often used in a call and response fashion where the cantor begins a phrase and the congregation responds, or antiphonally, with two choirs, or halves of the congregation responding to each other. Worshippers get a sense that the words they are chanting have the weight of tradition; this is how Christians from time immemorial have worshipped, and the worshipper joins into that tradition becoming one voice in the eternal choir of the Church. The interplay between leader and congregant, or different sections of the congregation, reminds worshippers that we live in community with one another. As this is a text driven form, the theology of such texts is often incredibly rich and orthodox. Many texts are derived straight from the scriptures or have been the established texts of the church for centuries. The simple undecorated melody, while perhaps squelching personal creativity, reminds worshippers that God speaks through the Church and the Amen is sung in the unity of humility before the authority of Christ. There are of course criticisms that can be leveled against this form, especially when it is insisted upon as the only appropriate form of Christian worship. It can be seen, especially through modern lenses, as an affront to personal creativity and expression, in other words, it can appear stifling of the individual. It is not my purpose to defend any particular form, as all forms of worship are ultimately fallible and susceptible to corruption. But I would suggest that perhaps the use of chant today would be appropriate to bring into balance the out of control individualism that our current culture suffers under.

The next form we shall turn our attention to is that of the hymn. Often written in four-part harmony, modern hymnody derived much of its melodic inspiration from the popular music of the time, mainly famous snatches of opera music, or catchy drinking tunes from the local pubs. This redemption of culture can be seen to glorify God as worshippers set right the disordered things of this world that have fallen astray. The text of hymns is gradually unfolding, and so all of the verses should be sung to appreciate the narrative nature of this form. Many people make the claim that hymns generally have better theology than modern music, this is frankly not true; there are many hymns with absolute rubbish theology, the thing is, they’ve all been forgotten and the hymns we continue to remember are generally the classics. The use of the four-part harmony allows all members of a congregation to find his or her place in the music. Whereas other forms can be sung in a key too high for some and too low for others, theses harmonized pieces create avenues for each voice type to be able to worship at a comfortable level. The end result of a harmonized piece of music is a song that has a definite direction, but the intricate interplay of voices, the tension of dissonance and resolution, creates a rather robust picture of how humanity itself interacts. So in the form of the hymn we get participants worshipping in a manner that reflects the way in which they live their lives, constantly in various stages of tension or resolution with one another but ultimately creating a glorious sonic image of rightly ordered creation presenting itself before the Creator. This is a very incarnational picture of the Church worshipping the incarnated one. As one hymn says, “All God’s creatures’ got a place in the choir, some sing low, and some sing higher…”

Fast-forward to the present day. With the advent of the Vineyard movement, the Seeker church, and various other evangelical and charismatic strains of Christianity, the Praise and Worship chorus has sprung up as immensely popular. Once again reflecting the popular music of the times, this music allows for great personal expression, creativity and improvisation. There is a certain freedom from the oppression of established guidelines that allows artists, or worship leaders to act spontaneously under the guidance of the Holy Spirit without the fear of interrupting the liturgy, or messing with a sacred form. It is a highly emotionally charged form which allows worshippers to easily become involved in the music, usually utilizing simple repetitive lyrics that are easy to learn and improvise on. Worshippers may sing melody or choose to make up their own harmonies as they are led to do so with the ideal effect of a mass of people singing one theme while elaborating and decorating it with all of the unique attributes that God has blessed his people with.

Now, an admonition to the worship music leaders of Churches. This brief sampling of church music is but a sketch of the plethora of musical options available to the Church. I have said nothing here of spirituals, chorales, Taize, etc., but I’m sure you are aware of the broad expanse of options. Now some traditions may be more tightly identified with certain forms than others and that is ok, but for churches with freedom to experiment, do not limit yourselves to one form! Chant allows for great unity, but can become stifling and oppressive, and congregants may easily disengage from it. Used appropriately however, it can become a great meditative tool and re-introduce a sense of the sacred and ancient traditions of the Church back into our liturgically bankrupt services. As a singer of choral music, I myself rather enjoy hymns, and deeply appreciate the intertwining of my voice with that of my brothers and sisters in a great symbol of human solidarity and diversity. However, I recognize that in many communities, the tradition of choral music has faded away so that many will find this form difficult to enter into as some formation of skill through practice is required. As so many in evangelical churches today are unable to use this form, it may bring much benefit to a congregation to introduce the singing of at least one hymn per service, encouraging worshippers to use the hymnals for these songs rather than projecting the lyrics on the screen. In this way, worshippers learn to listen to one another and to find their proper place in the harmony rather than being bulldozed by a melody that may be quite difficult for their voice range to sing. Finally, I feel that I have the most words of correction for the Praise and Worship genre. This is due largely to the fact that it is the form with which I am most familiar, and while I have had many wonderfully meaningful worship experiences within this form, I have learned also the pitfalls of it. Too often, as in our secular pop music, it is tenor or soprano voices which tend to dominate this genre. Many of the songwriters write melodies that are largely in the upper register, or, because they are all trained singers, range from a very low point to a very high point. This makes it difficult for many worshippers to join in as their voices simply cannot sing the notes that the leader is capable of. Great care should therefore be taken to choose keys that are at a moderate range to ensure that the maximum number of untrained singers will be able to raise their voices in praise. As for improvisation and elaboration; a certain level of this may in fact be appropriate, but leaders must be constantly aware, especially in presenting new songs, that most members of the congregation will not be able to follow sudden vocal elaborations or solos. When a singer does this, he or she effectively transforms from a symbol that leads the congregation into worshipping God, and becomes an object of attention in his or her own right. There may be room for some exclamatory vocal celebrations, especially within the context of a familiar, repetitive song where there is no way the congregation will be led astray from their assigned part in the song; but I would caution against the individuality and glory grabbing that the performing of solos so often accomplishes. As all of the forms that we have discussed have their roots in the culture in which they grew up, so too does the Praise and Worship form. As individualism is the dominant paradigm of our culture, this form tends to celebrate and promote it more so as well. This is all well and good, for which each one of us come to Christ as individuals, but at the same time, we are part of the Church, we are communal beings, just as the Trinity is communal, and so we must take precautions against stressing individualism too much.

Choose your forms wisely therefore, being conscious of the strengths and weaknesses of each. Use variety, for as God has revealed himself with many images, metaphors and names, so to should our worship seek to glorify him with the varying images, metaphors and symbols that these various forms create. The way in which we worship, will inevitably shape the type of people we become. It is impossible to assume a certain posture before God, and practice a various way of life in our worship, and not be effected by it. The way we practice our worship before God should be done with care therefore, keeping in mind the type of Christians we desire to be formed as. As James writes, “Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27). Be mindful of the ways in which our worship leads us to the realization of this goal. For that is the true goal of worship.

A brief theology of daily life

Conventional wisdom gives us many pithy sayings such as, “We’re here for a good time, not a long time”, “YOLO (you only live once)”, “Live for the moment”, etc. Most Christians are rightfully horrified at the apparently flippant attitude towards life that such slogans seem to promulgate. Yet Qoheleth writing in Ecclesiastes reminds us that indeed much of life is meaningless, a mere chasing after the wind. All of our plans and schemes so often come to naught that it would be wise to learn to eat, and drink, and enjoy our lives. Rather than being “busy” always (my constant crime), we would do well to learn to rest and enjoy the day that the Lord has made. As Jean Vanier reminds us in his book Community and Growth,

If we are in community only to ‘do things’, its daily life will not nourish us; we will be constantly thinking ahead, because we can always find something urgent to be done. If we live in a poor neighbourhood or with people in distress, we are constantly challenged. Daily life is only nourishing when we have discovered the wisdom of the present moment and the presence of God in small things. It is only nourishing when we have given up fighting reality and accept it, discovering the message and gift of the moment. If we see housework or cooking simply as chores which have to be got through, we will get tired and irritable; we will not be able to see the beauty around us. But if we discover that we live with God and our brothers and sisters through what has to be done in the present moment, we become peaceful. We stop looking to the future; we take time to live. We are no longer in a hurry because we have discovered that there is gift and grace in the present of the book-keeping, the meetings, the chores and the welcome. (Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, 170).

When rest has been established, and an appreciation for “life in the moment” has been cultivated, God’s immanent work in his creation becomes exceedingly, abundantly clear to our eyes, we can say truthfully along with the songwriter, Lord, “these days I can’t find where you’re not”.

Life is a gift, Christ’s purpose in coming was not to negate that gift but to say yes to it. He has established a reality in which Life can be lived in wonder and fullness, giving thanks to God from whom all blessings flow. You only live once, why not make the most of it to the glory of God the father, maker of heaven and earth and Lord of Life.

In a similar vein, my great-grandfather Norman Turnbull wrote this poem in deep appreciation of the treasure that life is. He understood that the living of life itself is a great reward and that we may be content in the day to day, not restlessly yearning for some utopian ideal that will never arrive.

The Wealth of Life

Life is ever new, each morning a different day;

It pulses through all our souls afresh, beckons us on our way.

Life teaches us strength and love if we its lesson will heed,

Forgetting self in the nobler task of helping another in need.

Life itself is a picture, we daub with the hues of time

Bending ourselves to sorrow, or heights of glory sublime.

Life seems a burden to some, to others a blithesome play;

We make or mar, but on each alone falls the burden of the way.

Over and all around us are worlds we may never know

Yet every spring life moves anew beneath the soft white snow.

Perpetual, everlasting, a promise sure as the sun,

Life covers again the earth with green, new growth from the sod has sprung.

Growth of the spirit, growth of the world, growth of God’s own good,

Life the beginning, life the end, each must be understood.

Life is our school and we live it, each in his choice of way;

Lessons we learn at our father’s knee were taught in our Saviour’s day.

Whatever our greatest riches and plans and rosy dreams of wealth,

None offer to us a greater reward than just living life itself.