Ken Myers’ recent visit to Hillsdale College to deliver lectures on Music and the Great Tradition, has me thinking about the relationship between Christ and culture, or at least the way some Christians conceive of it. Ken persuaded me of the importance of music in the created order, why harmonic structures parallel mathematical forms, why singing is such an important part of creation (soulful and soulless) giving praise to God, and why music can have such a profound effect on listeners. He also was convincing that some forms of music are superior to others, that a predilection for some kinds of music reflects a disordered soul, and that appreciation of good music requires education and discipline. (I hear but do not know when these lectures will be available on-line.)
Where I have questions is in trying to correlate musical aesthetic with Christian truth or conviction. I wonder for instance, if we could do for the musical soul what Thomas Boston’s Four-fold State of Man did for the human soul. We might imagine humanity divided up into the following categories
1) Good Music Lovers
a) regenerate
b) unregenerate
2) Bad Music Lovers
a) regenerate
b) unregenerate
In category 1a, we have people who know and love God and also know and appreciate good music. But we can’t regard musical appreciation as a fruit of the Spirit because of category 1b — that is, people who are not saved but appreciate music even more than some of the saints. What accounts for this love of good music is not something spiritual but a natural capacity by which a person with the right training (and some natural abilities) can learn to understand the way music works and revel in its beauty and forms.
The natural aspects of musical appreciation are all the more apparent when we turn to the category of 2a — that is, the Christian who has no ear for the great musical traditions and actually regards people who celebrate good music as elitist. Here, the work of sanctification has no apparent bearing on musical appreciation. If it did, we might expect a believer to listen to more and more good music as he or she dies to self and lives to Christ. But in point of fact, no church in human history has ever countenanced musical taste as evidence of God’s grace. (And I am not saying the Ken thinks it is.) If a church were to do that, we face the uncomfortable reality of regarding Beethoven or Wagner as Christians.
As I say, Ken was not arguing for musical appreciation as a form of sanctification. He was, though, talking about what music and its place in the universe says about the human soul and its relation to the creator. Without sufficient care and theological rigor, such considerations can lead to blurring the lines between what happens in sanctification and what occurs with a well-ordered natural soul. At the end of the day, it seems to me that confessional Protestant culture vultures need to be content with Christians who don’t appreciate good music and humble around non-Christians who understand much of creation and its creator better than most believers. In 2k parlance, culture is part of the ordinances of creation and fallen humans, who bear the image of God still, participate in and enjoy culture as part of their creatureliness. Cult, however, requires more than nature; it requires a supernatural reordering of the soul which may or may not lead to good culture.
209 Comments
Did Myers cite Begbie approvingly?
Darryl, yes I am saying the latter. But don’t you think the classical 2k view of temporal/eternal suffices to explain this?
Terry, yes Ken interviewed him twice. I found it to be extremely thought provoking. The second interview is on volume 94, part 2.
Terry, yes.
Don, so you agree with this: “Musically it is well ordered but spiritually ordered is a different matter.”
Since I described this as a 2k view of the soul, why do you ask if 2k explains this?
Darryl, I am in agreement that it is possible to be musical and not regenerate. But I wouldn’t ‘t pit musical well ordering of the soul against spiritual well ordering of the soul. Rather, music, like other forms of culture, can be viewed from either a spiritual or eternal perspective on one hand or a material or temporal perspective on the other. The only difference in the playing or enjoying of music is purely internal and invisible to an outside observer.
Don, I had a hunch that you wouldn’t pit the one ordering of the soul against the other. That has been your general mo here. And so what do you say to someone who says I think I can be good (i.e., acceptable to God) and achieve a well-ordered soul by learning to appreciate music? Do you warn someone that that is a dangerous view? Or do you encourage them to press on?
Darryl, I would encourage him to continue to learn to appreciate music and give him a copy of the book “Resounding Truth” by Jeremy Begbie. I’d be interested in your thoughts about Begbie. You could download Ken’s interview with him on volume 94 at marshillaudio.org.
I don’t think that Begbie or Myers would agree with the notion that God’s command to subdue the earth is to be viewed as a task that Christ has fulfilled, but rather as a means of participating in the triune love and fellowship of Father, Son and Spirit. Begbie demonstrates how music reflects the triunity of God.