Artistic Theologian Volume 3 (2015)

Download Full PDF | Download Logos doc (help)

A Word from the Editor

John E. Simons

Artistic Theologian connects people and cultivates the sharing of ideas about worship, missions, and discipleship. As well, Artistic Theologian actively seeks to create thoughtful relationships between the academic and practical worlds of artistic ministry, and it is designed to give opportunities for peer-reviewed publication to scholars, students, and practitioners. This third volume also includes a collaborative article from a research and writing team of doctoral students working with their primary professor. The Editorial Board and the School of Church Music at Southwestern are pleased to present the third volume of Artistic Theologian.

Read more | Download PDF

“Worship from the Nations”: A Survey and Preliminary Analysis of the Ethnodoxology Movement

Scott Aniol, et al.

As the world grows smaller through advancements in technology, communication, and transportation, Christians face important questions regarding the appropriate rela-tionship between ministry and culture. Christian missionaries are increasingly forced to wrestle with cultural dilemmas, particularly in the area of worship. Older models imposed traditional western forms on worship in foreign contexts, yet many have recently ques-tioned this practice as ignoring a culture’s own indigenous styles and forms. One growing movement that seeks to answer these questions by encouraging full integration of Chris-tian worship with the indigenous target culture is ethnodoxology. Building upon developments in missiology over more than forty years, the ethnodoxology movement has begun to impact significantly the conversation about and the practice of music and worship in missions, and of the missions endeavor in general. The purpose of this paper is to trace the history and emphases of the ethnodoxology movement, assessing its strengths and offering proposals for further study. The pa-per begins with a brief summary of the historical developments that were antecedents to this new emphasis. It continues by synthesizing the movement’s primary arguments. It concludes by offering a preliminary assessment of its strengths and potential areas of weakness.

Read more | Download PDF

Principles of a Baptist Theology of Worship

Matthew Ward

Baptists are known, perhaps are even notorious, for their distinctive beliefs, and worship is rarely considered to be one of them. However, worship was once the central concern that created divisions between believers and shaped the beliefs now considered to be distinctively Baptist. Early Baptists benefited from a robust theology of worship, and modern Baptists might be surprised to learn just how relevant the principles of that theology are today. The purpose of this essay is not just to explore those principles but also to open a dialogue about them. Pastors and worship leaders in Baptist churches often have a difficult time with worship because they do not know how to approach it objective-ly. The earliest English-speaking Baptist leaders struggled with some of the same issues we face today, and they left a surprisingly detailed record of their biblically inspired posi-tions. Their perspectives and conclusions offer a helpful starting point for a new dialogue on a Baptist theology of worship. This essay will introduce their theology of worship through two basic questions: what did a church rooted in pure worship look like from the early English Baptist perspective, and how should those churches be evaluated? The prin-ciples they established and the questions they asked are surprisingly germane to Baptist churches today. From time to time in this essay, questions will be offered for reflection on how these issues from the seventeenth century still resonate in the twenty-first century.

Read more | Download PDF

The Forgotten Art of Anamnesis

Brad Allen

Long before the age of smart phones and tablets, I could recall names, addresses, and phone numbers of all my friends. That time has passed and now I do not even know the phone numbers of my own children. Like many, I tap their name on my smart phone and it dials their number. I e-mail or text them, and thus, do not have a clue of their mailing address. During the era of Bible drills, I knew exactly how deep to turn in my Bible to the book of Second Peter. Today, my Bible is an app on my smart phone, tap a book and chap-ter and within a second, it appears on the screen. Am I more dependent on technology and less dependent on my memory?  A popular praise chorus contains the words, “We will remember, we will re-member, we will remember the works of your hands. We will stop and give you praise, for great is thy faithfulness.” However, do we really pause in the midst of worship to re-member? The fast-paced, technological society we live in has a dramatic effect on not only our daily lives, but also our worship. Has technology caused us to forget that which we are supposed to remember? I fear that for many worshipers, remembering our actions and elements of worship is a forgotten, if not lost, art.

Read more | Download PDF

The Lord’s Supper among the Early Philadelphia and Charleston Association Baptists

James Cheesman

The early Baptists of the Philadelphia Baptist Association and Charleston Association viewed the Lord’s Supper in terms of the spiritual presence of Christ and emphasized sanctification and the communal significance of the ordinance. To prove these points, I will first discuss Elias Keach and his influence upon the beliefs and practices of the PBA. I will then examine what the Second London Confession, Keach’s Covenant, Keach’s Catechism, and other catechisms teach about the Lord’s Supper. Finally, I will analyze the communion practices of both associations as presented by relevant primary sources.

Read more | Download PDF

Some Similarities and Differences between Historic Evangelical Hymns and Contemporary Worship Songs

Lester Ruth

Hymns are not choruses and praise choruses are not hymns. This sentiment was one of the major truisms of the battles that erupted in the United States in the latter twen-tieth century over various styles of worship. The idea that the two were not the same seemed self-evident. Indeed, early forms of contemporary worship, even before that term was coined, were premised on a distinction between the bodies of congregational song. For example, in the late 1970s the worship of John Wimber’s congregation in southern California—first a Calvary Chapel and then a Vineyard Fellowship—was predicated upon those worshipers wanting to sing songs to God, not about God. But is such a dichotomy accurate? Are those bodies of song all that different? From a certain angle, especially one that only asks theological questions about the lyrics, hymns and choruses are often quite similar. They both are windows into a piety that shows con-stancy for more than 200 years in many critical aspects. Specifically, a theological analysis of the lyrics of the most popular evangelical hymns and choruses in the United States demonstrates important similarities in their Trinitarian perspective—or lack thereof—over the last 200 years. In addition, a close lyrical examination reveals significant points of divergence, especially in a shift to more direct forms of adoration in worship as well as in different eschatologies.

Read more | Download PDF

Reviews

Abstracts of Recent SWBTS School of Church Music Doctoral Dissertations

“Kendall Taylor, Beethoven Editions, and the ‘Tempest’ Sonata” by Moira Hopfe-Ostensen, DMA

“The Liturgical History of the Song of Songs and Suggestions for its Inclusion in Haitian Evangelical Religious Gatherings” by Azer Lilite, PhD

“A Performer’s Analysis of Fantasia in C Minor, K. 475 and Sonata in C Minor, K. 457 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Selected Etudes, Nos. 1, 4, 10, and 16 By György Sandor Ligeti” by Kyoung Ah Mun, DMA

Read more | Download PDF

Munson Art and BeautyArt and Music: A Student’s Guide
Paul Munson and Joshua Farris Drake