Theological content should be taken into account when music for use in corporate worship is selected by those given that task, a lecturer in the 2006 Theologian-in-Residence series at Tusculum College emphasized Tuesday.

Dr. David Hendricksen, completing his four-part series on "Music and Worship" in the annual lecture series sponsored by Tusculum College and the Holston Presbytery, said that "If we (the church) sing good theology, good theology will tend to be what we believe. If we sing bad theology, bad theology will tend to be what we believe.

"We should be careful about what we sing," Hendricksen continued. "Plato, Luther, Calvin and Hitler" all knew the "power of music" to attract people to certain ideas, he said.

Historically, the hymnal has often served as "the theology text for lay people" in the church, said Hendricksen, who directs the music program at First Presbyterian Church in Greeneville and also directs several choirs across Northeast Tennessee. He also teaches at Tusculum College in an adjunct capacity and is a former administrator of the college.

The earliest Christians sang the Biblical Psalms and other passages from the scriptures and also wrote and sung hymns that were "virtually sung creeds," Hendricksen said. This emphasis on scriptural and theological content in music helped teach the essentials of the faith to early Christians. And good hymns that have been carried down through the centuries have done the same for later Christian generations as well, Hendricksen said. Hendricksen argued that the passing of time provides a "filtering" for the music of worship, with hymns that contain good theology and edifying content tending to survive, and lesser hymns that do not rightly reflect the realities of the faith tending to be left behind. He mentioned one hymn, "Of the Father's Love Begotten," that has had "seventeen centuries of filtering," and commented that the survival of that hymn through so many church generations provides a basis for reasonable confidence that the song's theology accurately reflects Christian theology, heritage and experience.

Hendricksen warned that those who select music for use in worship should exercise caution and "discernment" in selecting newer hymns because newer songs have not had time to be "filtered" in the manner described above and may be vehicles for weak or faulty theology. Even some hymns that have become familiar parts of Christian worship and choral and solo singing are weak in theology, Hendricksen said. He cited some of the lyrics of the beloved standard "In the Garden."

That song is typical of songs from the early 20th century and 19th century that centered strongly on individual religious experience, on "me and my relationship to God," Hendricksen said. Such songs tend to pull attention away from the universal, corporate aspects of Christian life and experience and focus it on individual subjective experience.

The hymn "In the Garden," for example, begins with the words "I come to the garden alone," Hendricksen pointed out, emphasizing the word "alone." The song then describes the narrator's sense of "walking" and "talking" with God in an isolated and highly individualized context. The song ends "Š And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known." "'None other has ever known,'" Hendricksen quoted, then asked rhetorically, "What kind of theology is that?" In prior discussions Hendricksen had emphasized Christian community as a crucial aspect of the faith and particularly of worship, saying that worship is "personal but not private," and in the Biblical model is something done in the context of a body of fellow believers. Though newer hymns do not have the benefit of years or even centuries of "filtering," Hendricksen said, some new hymns are quite good, and "some good hymns have come out of every possible style." No single style of music should be judged as inappropriate for worship, Hendricksen said. On the other hand, musical style is not a "neutral container for the message it embodies," Hendricksen contended, though such statements are frequently made in some parts of the church.

He illustrated his point by performing, on a piano, an old somber hymn entitled "Oh Sacred Head Now Wounded," and leading the audience in singing its first stanza. He then presented the same words set to the tune of another old hymn, "The Church's One Foundation." The words could be sung to the latter melody, but the much more lively and bright nature of that melody did not suit the solemnity of the song's words. "The container (i.e., the musical style) is not neutral," Hendricksen said.

Hendricksen warned, however, that the fact that musical style makes a difference should not mean that any one particular style is excluded from consideration in the music of worship. Each worshiper, as part of his or her Christian humility and willingness to endure sufferings both large and small for the sake of the faith, must be prepared to sometimes take part in music he or she may not personally enjoy, he said.

Hendricksen encouraged the use of musical styles from different cultures, times and places where the church lives or has lived. He played a sample of a lively hymn from Jamaica and noted that the use of such culture-transcending music helps remind worshipers that they are not alone in the faith and that the church includes many kinds of people and cultures. He urged that Christians "be consciously cross-cultural in our approach to music." However, such music should not be treated as a mere "cultural tour." "We shouldn't pick a Mexican song for use in worship simply because it reminds us of the good times we had when we visited Cancun," Hendricksen said.

Using music from other cultures does not deny our own culture, but it does call into question the assumption that our culture is the normative one by which all others should be judged," he said. The music of worship, Hendricksen urged, should derive from the "real, authentic music of a people" in order to represent the "holy, catholic church." "Commercial" music does not achieve this, he said.

Hendricksen repeated a theme struck in his earlier presentations in the series: that the real cultural conflict is not between "high" culture and "low" culture or even classical culture and "popular" culture, but between the authentic culture of a people and "commercial" culture.

"I don't see the need to adopt into the church artifacts of commercial culture as a wholesale means of connecting with the world," Hendricksen said. "Whatever place we give in worship to weak words and weak theology is a place that could have been given to strong words and strong theology," he said. Hendricksen also spent time in his lecture "dissecting" hymns in various ways, both in terms of their music and their words. A distinction was made between "objective" hymns that talk either about God or to God, and "subjective" hymns that focus on the thoughts, feelings and experiences of the singer. Hendricksen gave no support to a trend seen in many American churches over the past few decades, that of dividing a church's worship service offerings into "traditional" and "contemporary" services. Traditional services use classic hymnody and instrumentation and follow familiar patterns, while "contemporary" services usually use modern music and non-classic styles, and often incorporate alternative instrumentation such as drums, guitars, and electronic keyboards. "To segment a congregation by style is to impoverish the body of Christ," Hendricksen said. Most rationales for creating such divisions are "market driven," he said, and divide the church into "small demographic groups." "The function of commercialized music is to sell, so it is focused to small demographic groups," he said.

Hendricksen said he believes that theological education should be crucial for those being trained to lead and shape music in worship, and likewise, music education should be part of the training of clergy.

He said he is "appalled" at the lack of theological content in many educational programs for music ministers.

Hendricksen's lecture concluded the 2006 series, which was one of the most successful presentations in the 16-year-old lecture series, drawing some of the largest crowds, according to Mark Stokes, vice president for institutional advancement at Tusculum College. The next Theologian-in-Residence lecture series will take place in February of 2007. The speaker and subject matter have not yet been chosen.