Book Review - Worship in Song

Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: BMH Books (January 28, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0884692620
Buy at Amazon.com

This book—suitable for almost every reader—is not a rant against contemporary music and the people who enjoy it. Aniol’s basic premise is that the “music issue” is primarily a theological issue, and people would do well to seek to have their musical choices (both personal and congregational) driven by submission to Scripture. In order to accomplish this, Aniol’s 246 pages (not counting appendices) are divided into three sections.

The first section (chapters 1-5), “Laying the Foundation,” covers the issues of biblical authority, worship, sanctification and affection. It closes with a brief survey of the influence of culture and religious movements on music throughout church history. I suppose that most believers—including those comfortable with contemporary music—would agree that the Bible is our authority and that sanctified worship is a proper goal. Scott further argues that this can be accomplished only as the heart has proper affections towards God, and that sensual words and rock beat undermine that affection. The concluding chapter of this section is entitled “Pop Goes the Music: Music, Culture, and the Church.” In it the author addresses the relationship between these three elements. He asserts that “culture is the tangible expression of a society’s collective worldview. It is religion externalized. How a particular community looks at life, morality, God, mankind, and justice expresses itself externally in their popular visual art, literature philosophies, and music” (60).

In the second section (chapters 6-9) called “Music in Lifestyle Worship,” the author tackles a subject that is lacking in many books on Christian music: what we listen to personally and privately. In this section he gives a very helpful explanation of the four messages found in any poem: textual, poetic, associative and intrinsic (chapter 6). In chapter 7 Aniol observes that “one of the most significant functions of beautiful music is to give the listener a finite taste of the joy one can have in God” (114). Good “secular” music then must contain the qualities that reflect the qualities of God. There are dangers even in attempting this, suggests the author. He says:

This fear of music drawing undue attention to itself (quoting William Edgar, “Taking Note of Music”) and not pointing the listener to ultimate beauty has motivated some to be wary of and even reject the use of sacred music altogether. For instance, Ulrich Zwingli feared the power of music so much that he outlawed its use in Church completely. John Calvin allowed the use of music in his services but restricted it to metrical Psalmody with no musical accompaniment. Even Augustine saw the danger of music’s emotional power. His writings are replete with evidences of his struggle over whether music was beneficial for Christians…. (115)

Scott goes on to explain that the difficulty is in allowing earthly beauty only to be the deciding factor, instead of seeking pleasure from divine beauty. He illustrates the potential of this by pointing out that the disciples were awestruck by the wrong “beauty” at the Mount of Transfiguration. Aniol admits that this is not always a simple task when he writes, “It would be nice if the issue of musical styles were as simple as evaluating what it communicates and deciding whether it is acceptable to the Lord. It is not, however, that simple. Human finiteness and depravity hinder us from easily determining such things” (138). His advice for making these decisions is to reject any music that communicates a blatantly evil message, to pose serious questions to ourselves about what the music does communicate, and to faithfully apply biblical principles even to the use of our personal music choices.

The third section (chapters 10-17) is called “Music in Assembled Worship.” In this section, the author discusses styles of biblical worship and the purpose of the church and worship. Then he gives a detailed biblical explanation that church music should center on God, sound doctrine, and our affections for God. (I appreciated the fact that Scott was willing to say that some of our most beloved hymns are as shallow as some of today’s praise choruses.) If, as the author correctly argues, “worship is a Biblical response to God resulting from an understanding of Biblical truth about God,” then congregational music must “respond to God because of truth about Him” (173). He goes on to point out that “our sacrifices of praise do not earn us anything; we are already accepted in Christ….But God deserves our best. If we are attempting to worship Him through our music, then we should be certain to strive for excellence in congregational worship music. That means that shoddy, shallow, poorly written music should be avoided, and only what is quality, well written music is worthy of an offering to God” (179). This begins a solid rebuttal of the widespread theory of church music that can be summed up under the heading, “but I really like it!” Once again the author points out that believers on all sides of the traditional vs. contemporary issue can get caught up in what he calls “sentimental” music—and this sentimentalism replaces God and doctrine. Furthermore, Aniol argues that congregational music should be just that: music appropriate for the entire congregation to sing. It is music for a congregation, not an audience.

The book concludes by urging us to consider God worthy of good music, and worthy of the time it takes to find, sing, and listen to it. Three appendices are included. One is an appeal to teach children hymns, one organizes church hymns by topic, and one is a suggestion of songs for a personal music library.

This is a well-written, well-organized book. You don’t need to be a musician to understand it, and neither do you need formal theological training. This book could benefit any parent, pastor, teen, or church member seeking to learn more about biblical music philosophy.