Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow--But How? (UPDATE)
Most people, when they encounter someone who says something that they have thought for a long time, but who manages to say it better and pithier than they could, are grateful. Me, who spends an inordinate amount of time trying to do exactly that? I'm jealous.
So I'm very jealous of the AmSpec's Lawrence Henry, who nails the triteness of "praise music" in the modern church, and points out the great dilemma for Christians like me:
Churches devoted to rigorous, difficult theology -- real Christianity, in short -- have largely adopted praise music, mainly to get people in the doors. In doing so, they have denied their parishioners an intimate connection with the art, the music, the poetry, and the history of the faith of our fathers, embodied in hymns.Henry contrasts the lyrics of "O Worship the King", melody by F.J. Haydn, with the 1991 praise song "You Are My All in All". It's like comparing a hearty, balanced prime rib dinner to a McRib sandwich in a styrofoam box. I'm not opposed in principle to praise music--I get goosebumps at Jesus is Lord, especially when the girls sing the descant--and it's great for settings like church camps and Sunday schools or just singing to oneself. But it's just not up to the task on its own of communal Christian worship for adults.Mainstream churches, which have left Christianity behind for liberation theology, "peace and justice" theory, deconstruction, and modernism, still cling to the hymnbook, to the hard work of teaching choirs to sing in harmony, and to the expense of maintaining pipe organs.
If only they took as good care of the faith.
It's unconscionable that so many, even most, of the more doctrinally serious churches have abandoned that exhilarating heritage of hymnody that I think is one of Christianity's greatest treasures.
Previous hymnblogging about one of my favorites, and the tragic story behind it, here.
UPDATE: If you're interested in this topic you really owe it to yourself to check out this very literate essay from a Catholic perspective by "Paragraph Farmer" Patrick O'Hannigan. I haven't checked out all the links yet, and I think Salieri gets a bad rap (since his music and personality weren't nearly as bad as they were portrayed in Amadeus). But he brings in church architecture, Phil Spector, P.J. O'Rourke, and Anthony Esolen.
JYB Tailwag for Deputy Headmistress of The Common Room, who liked my little post so much she linked it twice!
While I'm updating, let me clarify that I'm not trying to be elitist here. I think this music reaches people and it serves a purpose. I hold out no pretensions about my own musical tastes, and I humbly confess that I know all the words to "Drop Kick Me, Jesus, Through The Goalposts of Life". As I said, there's a place for these songs out in the world, bringing people in to the church. But for an actual service that is supposed to be a time set aside from the world for God, well, nothing would be good enough, but there is some music better than other music.