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Since 1900, the Christian Century has published reporting, commentary, poetry, and essays on the role of faith in a pluralistic society.
© 2023 The Christian Century.
In praise of church musicians
Great leaders of congregational song attend to the new community formed every time a church gathers.
Sing a rights-cleared song to the Lord
“Each report we receive at ONE LICENSE turns into a royalty payment,” says Brenna Cronin, “and those payments are someone’s livelihood.”
Should we avoid liturgical language of light and dark?
While struggling with this question as a church songwriter, I came up with six guidelines.
Machanic Manyeruke and the gospel music scene in Africa
James Ault’s new documentary offers a window into a vast and exciting musical world.
The Porter’s Gate’s songs give voice to the realities of 2020
A collective of Black, White, and Latino church songwriters makes liturgical music for resistance.
Why my church is done singing David Haas’s songs
It’s not because we don’t believe in grace.
Tracing the traditions of English church music
Andrew Gant's lively book tells a history of sacred song.
On Saturdays at First Presbyterian, the congregants know good jazz when they hear it. But the event is first of all a church service.
by Dean Nelson
The church’s recognition of the reality of radical evil opened its music to dissonant, jagged 20th-century soundscapes and what they could express.
In response to our request for essays on song, we received many compelling reflections. Here is a selection.
As new forms of congregations arise, new musical forms are developing. Walls are coming down—secular vs. sacred, intellect vs. emotion, contemporary vs. traditional.
In a major hymnal, an unauthorized edit is an embarrassing oversight. In the local church, it's pretty routine.
I like Keith Getty's "In Christ Alone." I think the PCUSA hymnal committee probably made the right call on the whole "wrath of God was satisfied" business, but still: it's a good song for congregational use, accessible but with some theological meat.
It's a little bizarre, however, to present "In Christ Alone" and Getty's other songs as one side of a two-sided debate over church music, as NPR does here.
Somewhere in my queue of non-time-sensitive articles to write—yes, it’s been there a while—is one on the history and practice of making theologically significant changes to traditional American songs. Not just line-level edits like neutering/diversifying gendered language or using “love” in place of “wrath.” I mean re-imagining songs in a thoroughgoing way, while also preserving much of the existing imagery and language patterns. (I posted some time ago about one historical example.)
I write songs and play traditional music, but I haven’t actually tried this approach myself.
Many churchgoers greet the announcement of a new hymnal with a single puzzled, even outraged question: Why?
In preparing the new PCUSA hymnal, our committee may have made some wrong decisions. But they weren't careless or cavalier ones.