Music and Religion

As I said in my Autobiography, music and religion are very closely linked in my life.

I practice the religion of Christianity, and more specifically, Protestant Christianity. Music is highly important in the Christian religion. The Bible gives several examples of music being used as a form of worship, a form of reflection or lament, and a form of celebration.

Music is used in my church for many different things. First and foremost, we use music to worship our God. The music can be slow or fast and have a variety of topics, but the main purpose of it is to praise God. The music is more often than not song, but there is a large amount of instrumental music used as well. Many of our texts come from the Bible, specifically the Psalms of David or other poetic books of the Bible such as Song of Solomon or Isaiah. In some cases, we combine dance or movement with the music to act out a story from the Bible or a situation in life. We call this performing a drama. Drama uses sign language and expressive movement to portray the words of the song, without actually singing the song or playing the piece. Below is a link to one example of a drama. This church is from my denomination, the Church of God, and is in South Carolina. This group chose to use their bodies to make shapes that tell the story.

It is one of my personal favorites.



Here is another example of a drama that just uses motions and actions to tell a story. This was done at a conference put on by the Church of God a few years ago.



As far as styles, there are many opinions. The styles of music that we use to worship with vary from generation to generation, church to church, and person to person. Some people care a lot about what style of worship or music people use. Others aren’t as particular about it. It depends on that person’s personal beliefs.

Since I am from the Southern part of the United States, a country- Western style to music is found aesthetically pleasing to many Christians. Because of my age and generation, I like the more contemporary Christian music.

But besides that, the prevailing religion of this area is Christianity. Therefore, other than the Southern influences or country influences, there aren’t many prevailing religions that have affected the music of my religion as far as how I experience it. I’m sure that in other parts of the United States or in other countries, Christians use music that has many different flavors than the flavors that I am used to hearing or worshipping with.

Also, since the music of Protestant Christianity had its roots in the Lutheran hymnals of the Reformation, much of the hymns and texts used in this music can be directly linked back to those Lutheran hymnals and the times that surrounded the Reformation.