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Spirit of the Arts pp 67–91Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Music: Eros and Embodiment in Renewal Worship

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Part of the book series: Christianity and Renewal - Interdisciplinary Studies ((CHARIS))

Abstract

While creational theologies of art often posit that humans worship as an appropriate response to God’s glory and sovereignty, a pneumatological aesthetics sees eros as the necessary dynamism involved in musical worship. As the Spirit beckons the heart of a person, the person too desires closeness to God. This reciprocal relation of desire well describes what happens in renewal worship. This chapter looks at the role of emotion in a holistic spirituality and how it manifests in music. Embodied music comes about as an act of eros, which in turn motivates relational intimacy with God. Discernment is needed in order to avoid the trappings that may arise with emotional and embodied engagements. Nevertheless, rightly directed embodied worship could stimulate some very powerful encounters with God, and aid a person’s relational intimacy with God.

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Notes

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    Sarah Coakley , God, Sexuality, and the Self: An Essay ‘On the Trinity’ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 155.

  2. 2.

    Coakley, God, Sexuality, and the Self, 169.

  3. 3.

    See Monique Ingalls and Amos Yong, Eds., The Spirit of Praise: Music and Worship in Global Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity (University Park: Penn State University Press, 2015); James Steven, Worship in the Spirit: Charismatic Worship in the Church of England (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2007); Lee Roy Martin, Ed., Toward a Pentecostal Theology of Worship (Cleveland: CPT Press, 2016); Mark Jennings, “Imagining Jesus Doing a Whole Lotta Shakin’: Pentecostal Worship, Popular Music and the Politics of Experience,” Culture and Religion, Vol. 15, No. 2 (2014), pp. 211–226; Mark Jennings, Exaltation: Ecstatic Experience in Pentecostalism and Popular Music (Bern: Peter Lang, 2014); Janice McLean, “Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord: Music and Songs Within Pentecostal West Indian Immigrant Religious Communities in Diaspora,” Studies in World Christianity, Vol. 13, No. 2 (2007), pp. 127–141; Robert Mills, “Musical Prayers: Reflection on the African Roots of Pentecostal Musicm” Journal of Pentecostal Theology, Vol. 12, No. 12 (1998), pp. 109–126; Melvin Butler, “In Zora’s Footsteps: Experiencing Music and Pentecostal Ritual in the African Diaspora,” Obsidian, Vol. 9, No. 1 (2009), pp. 74–106; Calvin Johansson, “Singing in the Spirit: the Music of Pentecostals,” Hymn, Vol. 38 (1987), pp. 25–29; Donald Hustad, “The Historical Roots of Music in the Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal Movements,” Hymn, Vol. 38 (1987), pp. 7–11; Mandi Miller, “The Emotional Effects of Music on Religious Experience: A Study of the Pentecostal-Charismatic Style of Music and Worship,” Psychology of Music, Vol. 30, No. 1 (2002), pp. 8–27; Larry Eskridge, “Slain by the Music,” Christian Century, Vol. 123, No. 5 (2006), pp. 18–20; Queen Booker, “Congregational Music in a Pentecostal Church,” Black Perspectives in Music, Vol. 16 (1988), pp. 31–44; Amoah, Michael. “Christian Musical Worship and ‘Hostility to the Body’: The Medieval Influence Versus the Pentecostal Revolution.” Implicit Religion, Vol. 7, No. 1 (2004), pp. 59–75.

  4. 4.

    Donald Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori, Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), 23–24.

  5. 5.

    Donald Miller, “2006 SSSR Presidential Address—Progressive Pentecostals: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 46, No. 4 (2007), 443.

  6. 6.

    Mark Jennings, Exaltation: Ecstatic Experience in Pentecostalism and Popular Music (Bern: Peter Lang, 2014), 30.

  7. 7.

    Jennings, Exaltation, 38.

  8. 8.

    Birgit Meyer , “Aesthetics of Persuasion: Global Christianity and Pentecostalism’s Sensational Forms,” South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. 109, No. 4 (2010), 742.

  9. 9.

    Michael Amoah , “Christian Musical Worship and ‘Hostility to the Body’: The Medieval Influence Versus the Pentecostal Revolution,” Implicit Religion, Vol. 7, No. 1 (2004), 62.

  10. 10.

    Marcia Mount Shoop , Let the Bones Dance: Embodiment and the Body of Christ (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 163.

  11. 11.

    Amoah, “Christian Musical Worship,” 66.

  12. 12.

    Miller, “Progressive Pentecostals,” 437.

  13. 13.

    Miller, “Progressive Pentecostals,” 443.

  14. 14.

    Miller goes on to define “Progressive Pentecostals” as those who practice an embodied spirituality led by the Spirit, but also address the physical and social needs of their community . Miller sees that many Pentecostals have historically ignored the social needs of their community, adopting a form of quietism in the cultural sphere. For Miller it is the blend of embodied spirituality and community engagement that hits on every facet of a holistic Christian life. Miller writes, “Historically, it is true that Pentecostals were very otherworldly, with many of their members evangelizing their neighbors as they waited expectantly for the imminent return of Christ. This otherworldly characteristic of Pentecostalism, however, is changing. There is an emergent group of Pentecostals who are pursuing the integral or holistic gospel in response to what they see as the example of Jesus, who ministered both to people’s physical needs as well as preached about the coming kingdom of God (438).”

  15. 15.

    Amoah, “Christian Musical Worship,” 71.

  16. 16.

    Jeremy Begbie , “Faithful Feelings: Music and Emotion in Worship,” In Jeremy Begbie and Stephen Guthrie, Eds., Resonant Witness: Conversations Between Music and Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011), 324.

  17. 17.

    Begbie, “Faithful Feelings,” 325.

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    Begbie, “Faithful Feelings,” 325.

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    Begbie, “Faithful Feelings,” 326.

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    Begbie, “Faithful Feelings,” 326.

  22. 22.

    Begbie, “Faithful Feelings,” 328.

  23. 23.

    Begbie, “Faithful Feelings,” 328.

  24. 24.

    Begbie, “Faithful Feelings,” 335.

  25. 25.

    Begbie, “Faithful Feelings,” 335.

  26. 26.

    Frank Macchia, “Signs of Grace: Towards a Charismatic Theology of Worship,” in Lee Roy Martin, Toward a Pentecostal Theology of Worship (Cleveland: CPT, 2016), 154.

  27. 27.

    Macchia, “Signs of Grace,” 154.

  28. 28.

    James Whitehead and Evelyn Whitehead, Holy Eros: Recovering the Passion of God (New York: Maryknoll, 2009), 33.

  29. 29.

    Whitehead and Whitehead, Holy Eros, 33.

  30. 30.

    James K. A. Smith, You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2016), 46.

  31. 31.

    Smith, You Are What You Love, 70.

  32. 32.

    Begbie, “Faithful Feelings,” 336.

  33. 33.

    Begbie, “Faithful Feelings,” 336.

  34. 34.

    Begbie, “Faithful Feelings,” 353.

  35. 35.

    Begbie, “Faithful Feelings,” 337.

  36. 36.

    Begbie, “Faithful Feelings,” 341.

  37. 37.

    Begbie, “Faithful Feelings,” 343.

  38. 38.

    Daniel Levitin , This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (New York: Plume, 2006), 257.

  39. 39.

    Levitin, This Is Your Brain on Music, 258.

  40. 40.

    Jeremy Begbie, Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 217.

  41. 41.

    Begbie, “Faithful Feelings,” 344.

  42. 42.

    Many more genres of music would derive from the blues, jazz, and rock and roll that employ embodied gesticulations such as rhythm & blues, hip-hop, rap, and many rock subgenres, including punk, metal, and folk rock.

  43. 43.

    Harvey Cox , “Jazz and Pentecostalism,” Archives de Sciences Sociales Des Religions, Vol. 38, No. 84 (1993), 184.

  44. 44.

    Cox, “Jazz and Pentecostalism,” 183.

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    Lawrence Grossberg , “Another Boring Day in Paradise: Rock and Roll and the Empowerment of Everyday Life,” Popular Music, Vol. 4 (1984), 238.

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    Craig Mosher , “Ecstatic Sounds: The Influence of Pentecostalism on Rock and Roll,” Popular Music and Society, Vol. 31, No. 1 (2008), 96.

  48. 48.

    Larry Eskridge , “Slain by the Music,” Christian Century, Vol. 123, No. 5 (2006), 18–19. For a more in depth discussion on this, see chapter 2 in Steven Félix-Jäger, With God on Our Side: Towards a Transformational Theology of Rock and Roll (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2017).

  49. 49.

    Anders Nygren, Agape & Eros, Trans. by Philip Watson (repr. 1953, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), 175.

  50. 50.

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  51. 51.

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  52. 52.

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  53. 53.

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  54. 54.

    Nygren, Agape & Eros, 51.

  55. 55.

    James K. A. Smith, You Are What You Love, 9.

  56. 56.

    See Part 1 of Virginia Burrus and Catherin Keller, Eds., Toward a Theology of Eros: Transfiguring Passion at the Limits of Discipline (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006).

  57. 57.

    Adam Cooper, Holy Eros: A Liturgical Theology of the Body (Kettering: Angelico Press, 2014), 10.

  58. 58.

    Cooper, Holy Eros, 18.

  59. 59.

    Cooper, Holy Eros, 19.

  60. 60.

    Cooper, Holy Eros, 19.

  61. 61.

    James Whitehead and Evelyn Whitehead, Holy Eros: Recovering the Passion of God (New York: Maryknoll, 2009), 9.

  62. 62.

    Whitehead and Whitehead, Holy Eros, 53.

  63. 63.

    Whitehead and Whitehead, Holy Eros, 16.

  64. 64.

    James Nelson, Embodiment: An Approach to Sexuality and Christian Theology (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1979), 113.

  65. 65.

    Nelson, Embodiment, 113.

  66. 66.

    Whitehead and Whitehead, Holy Eros, 17.

  67. 67.

    Karmen MacKenrick , “Carthage Didn’t Burn Hot Enough: Saint Augustine’s Divine Seduction,” in Virginia Burrus and Catherin Keller, Eds., Toward a Theology of Eros: Transfiguring Passion at the Limits of Discipline (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006), 215.

  68. 68.

    MacKendrick, “Carthage Didn’t Burn Hot Enough,” 215.

  69. 69.

    James Nelson, “Embracing the Erotic: The Church’s Unfinished Sexual Revolution”, Reflections, Yale University (2006), http://reflections.yale.edu/article/sex-and-church/embracing-erotic-church-s-unfinished-sexual-revolution (accessed 7/25/2016).

  70. 70.

    Ola Sigurdson, Heavenly Bodies: Incarnation, the Gaze, and Embodiment in Christian Theology, trans. by Carl Olsen (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016), 248.

  71. 71.

    Sigurdson, Heavenly Bodies, 257.

  72. 72.

    Mario Costa , “For the Love of God: The Death of Desire and the Gift of Life,” in Virginia Burrus and Catherin Keller, Eds., Toward a Theology of Eros: Transfiguring Passion at the Limits of Discipline (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006), 46.

  73. 73.

    Nicholas Wolterstorff , “Suffering Love,” in William Mann, Ed. Augustine’s Confessions: Critical Essays (Lanham: Rowan & Littlefield, 2006), 120.

  74. 74.

    Wolterstorff, “Suffering Love,” 121.

  75. 75.

    Wolterstorff, “Suffering Love,” 136.

  76. 76.

    John Blevins , “Uncovering the Eros of God,” Theology & Sexuality, Vol. 13, No. 3 (2007), 298–299.

  77. 77.

    Costa, “For the Love of God,” 59.

  78. 78.

    Virginia Burrus , “Introduction: Theology and Eros after Nygren,” in Virginia Burrus and Catherine Keller, Eds., Toward a Theology of Eros: Transfiguring Passion at the Limits of Discipline (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006), xxi.

  79. 79.

    Costa, “For the Love of God,” 41.

  80. 80.

    Catherine Keller , “Afterword,” in Virginia Burrus and Catherin Keller, Eds., Toward a Theology of Eros: Transfiguring Passion at the Limits of Discipline (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006), 373.

  81. 81.

    Keller, “Afterword,” 373–374.

  82. 82.

    Jürgen Moltmann , The Crucified God: The Cross of Christ as the Foundation and Criticism of Christian Theology (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), 256–257.

  83. 83.

    Moltmann, The Crucified God, 245.

  84. 84.

    Moltmann, The Crucified God, 207.

  85. 85.

    Jesus Culture is a group of revivalist worship leaders that formed out of Bethel Church’s youth group in Redding, CA. They are today one of the most popular worship teams in the world and some of their members, including Kim Walker-Smith and Chris Quilala , have grown to international prominence.

  86. 86.

    Jesus Culture, “You Won’t Relent,” Your Love Never Fails (2008), http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/jesusculture/youwontrelent.html (accessed 8/14/2016).

  87. 87.

    Rick Pino , “Your Love Is Like,” The Narrow Road (2010), http://www.songlyrics.com/rick-pino/your-love-is-like-lyrics/ (accessed 8/14/2016).

  88. 88.

    John Mark McMillan , “How He Loves,” The Medicine (2010), http://www.songlyrics.com/john-mark-mcmillan/how-he-loves-lyrics/ (accessed 8/14/2016).

  89. 89.

    Matthew Wade and Maria Hynes, “Worshipping Bodies: Affective Labour in the Hillsong Church,” Geographical Research, Vol. 51, No. 2 (2013), 175.

  90. 90.

    Alejandro García-Rivera and Thomas Scirghi, Living Beauty: The Art of Liturgy (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), 79.

  91. 91.

    Jennings, Exaltation, 64.

  92. 92.

    Eskridge, “Slain by the Music,” 19.

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  1. Southeastern University, Lakeland, Florida, USA

    Steven Félix-Jäger

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Félix-Jäger, S. (2017). Music: Eros and Embodiment in Renewal Worship. In: Spirit of the Arts. Christianity and Renewal - Interdisciplinary Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67919-8_4

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