In one of my recent posts I was discussing the difference between sacred and secular as it applies to music. The particular object of my concern is the modern Christian music industry. I claimed in my earlier post that what constitutes “holy” music in churches today is predicated on the lyrical content and not the form of modern music. I also gave some historical perspective on how we arrived at this current point in the history of sacred music. Let me start of with a definition of sacred by the theologian Paul Tillich, ” Any object or event is sacramental in which the transcendent is perceived to be present” . Tillich’s view confirms the requirement of the sacred to elicit a particular type of experience. The experience of the transcendent. Transcendence at the very least refers to something beyond the domain of normal experience and knowledge or, as Kant stated, “beyond the limits of all possible experience or knowledge”. That’s a high bar to reach. That said, I think most of us can relate an experience of something deeply moving, something beyond the limits of language, when exposed to a particular work of art or music. The problem for me is that this quality is neither restricted to nor always attached to “religious” music. It can be found in Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” or in the Beatles “Let it Be”. A more secular music act can not be imagined than Nine Inch Nails and yet Johnny Cash’s cover of the song “Hurt” is one of the most transcendent I have ever heard. I have no doubt that Cash heard in the line “you could have it all, my empire of dirt” the deep echoes of Ecclesiastes as well as the Sermon on the Mount.. By the same token much of what I hear on Christian radio is just as superficial, and therefore as profane, as Lady Gaga. Unfortunately many Christians have closed themselves and their churches off from these alternative ways of experiencing the divine in music. They’ve created a wall of separation between themselves and the exterior culture by listening only to Christian radio and allowing only “Christian’ music on their children’s ipods. This is, I think, a natural reaction to the nihilism of our post-modern culture. It is true that popular culture has arrived at point where all music seems to have the same value whether its misogynistic, profane, political, enlightened, superficial, violent, ignorant, or any other value adjective you care to assign. We do seem to live in a kind of flat land where there is no distinction between the sacred and the profane. It is no wonder that we are concerned with the lack of values and spiritual depth in modern life. The deep irony for me is that by rejecting the exterior culture in toto, Christians have created an interior musical culture that is equally flat and nihilistic. A musical culture where all things are equal as long as they adhere to specific theological values, but are more often than not, lacking in the most important value of all for a piece of sacred music. The presence of the divine.
Life, Love, Mystery, that’s what it’s all about.
