Discourse

This chapter engages the discursive problem of music in both popular and academic literature, and, using ethnographic evidence, shows that musical meaning is partially determined and simultaneously configured via linguistic and generic means. One of the ways communities may form is around shared understanding of musical meaning, and musical meaning may be determined largely by generic understandings—musical genres often function discursively for North American evangelicals. The chapter argues that generic musical meaning is imbued with values and convictions, claiming that these are negotiated as a kind of discourse ethics. However, these generic understandings of meaning are unstable, being troubled by the competing claims of authenticity and control. This instability precludes ethical theorization on the premise of discourse alone, yet it indicates that the discourse that takes place both around and through musical activity is ethically important and should be taken into account in any ethical theory that gives an account of music.

Introduction

This chapter introduces the topic of musical worship and ethics. It describes the rationale for the book and the research that inspired it, along with the scope of its claims. In highlighting the importance of ethical reflection on the activity of musical worship, particularly the intersections and ongoing synergies of ritual, community, subjectivities, aesthetics, dogma, and personal identities, the chapter situates the book as one in a line of interdisciplinary scholarship that provides a variety of perspectives on a given subject—in this case, the ethical significance of musical worship.

Response

This chapter interweaves theological reflections from the traditions of American theological ethics and music philosophy with the author’s fieldwork, showing how an ethic of responsiveness makes claims on participants in the activity of musical worship. It argues that caring responsibilities that arise from such musical activity will require attentiveness to both relationships and justice. The chapter claims that this kind of care oriented toward restorative justice is a Christian response to biblical depictions of “the greatest commandment[s].” The chapter shows examples of how this just and caring responsiveness in musical worship may be enacted, concluding with an affirmation of the centrality of relationships for human beings.

Conclusion

This final chapter concludes the argument of the previous five chapters. In doing so, it briefly engages the topic of aesthetics, coupling the notion of beauty with that of authenticity to show how the argument of the book precludes moralizing on the basis of aesthetics alone. However, this does not foreclose reflection on aesthetics and ethics but rather reconfigures them so that beauty and goodness are viewed through a relational lens. It further considers the relationship of aesthetics, affect, and goodness to lyrics and texts, and notes that caring worship words restore worshippers to just relationships with their fellows. Finally, the main argument is summarized and suggestions for future research are offered.

Formation

This chapter continues examining ethics and music beyond discourse and meaning, and, drawing on fieldwork and theoretical considerations from the literature, argues that the second way that music is ethically significant is through shared experiences of emotional orientation. Musical activity forms communities through its ability to marshal human emotions and orient emotional postures toward or against ideas or objects. Participants experience the emotions of others in profound ways through music, and this influences their thinking, suggesting that musical activity is a site where meaning and emotion intersect. This intersection of meaning and emotion is intensely formational, indicating that music plays an important role in the formation of both reason and relationships.

Restore

This chapter continues the affective, formational trajectory, and combining the work of musicians and ethicists, argues the specifics of what care will entail in the context of musical activity in Christian communities, both in what care ethics addresses and where it may be directed. This interrogation of musical ethics is combined with a concern for restorative justice and concludes by weaving together the threads of ethical significance to articulate how the music of Christian communities can respond to the actions and events that those communities encounter.