Scott Aniol is the founder and Executive Director of Religious Affections Ministries. He is director of doctoral worship studies at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he teaches courses in ministry, worship, hymnology, aesthetics, culture, and philosophy. He is the author of Worship in Song: A Biblical Approach to Music and Worship, Sound Worship: A Guide to Making Musical Choices in a Noisy World, and By the Waters of Babylon: Worship in a Post-Christian Culture, and speaks around the country in churches and conferences. He is an elder in his church in Fort Worth, TX where he resides with his wife and four children. Views posted here are his own and not necessarily those of his employer.
Christmas: the one time of the year that most churches actually sing good hymns! Some of our traditional Christmas hymns really are quite profound, the… Read More »The profound simplicity of “Away in a Manger”
Understood as poet Christina Rosetti meant it, the answer to the question posed in the title of this post is, Yes. English poet Christina Rosetti… Read More »Was Jesus born in the bleak midwinter?
The following article was originally published in the Nov/Dec 2006 edition of Frontline Magazine. Christmas—a very mention of the word produces delight and expectation in the hearts… Read More »Where is Christ in Christmas?
You can’t escape them. There are 12 Days of Christmas contests on the radio, 12 Days of Christmas sales at the mall, 12 Days of… Read More »When are the Twelve Days of Christmas?
We are in the midst of a wonderful time in the year when we can reflect upon the advent of our Lord and the redemption that… Read More »Which advent is in view in “Joy to the World”?
This is the final post in a series I’ve been writing over the past couple months in order to more thoroughly develop an idea I… Read More »Worship forms regulated by Scripture
Last week I argued that if we believe in verbal-plenary inspiration, then the meaning of the aesthetic forms we employ in our contemporary worship must accurately… Read More »Fittingness
In this series of essays, I have argued that Scripture presents God’s truth to us, not merely in didactic propositions, but also (in fact, mostly!)… Read More »Aesthetic Correspondence
Yesterday at the national meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, I presented a paper evaluating Isaac Watts’s Trinitarian views. I hope to get the paper… Read More »Implications from Isaac Watts’s Trinitarian Controversy
In By the Waters of Babylon, I make a brief statement about how the aesthetic forms of Scripture should guide and regulate worship forms today. In… Read More »Translating the Aesthetic Forms of Scripture
A couple of friends asked for clarification and explanation of a claim I make in By the Waters of Babylon, in which I argue that the… Read More »Verbal, Plenary Inspiration and the Aesthetics of Scripture
I’d like to take a few posts over the next several weeks to respond to one criticism of something I wrote, but did not develop,… Read More »Biblical Authority and the Aesthetics of Scripture
A few years ago we published a new daily devotional for the Christmas season by Pastor Taigen Joos that has been very well-received. This devotional is perfect for… Read More »Order your Christmas Family Devotional Now!
The current presidential election in the United States has presented a conundrum of sorts for conservative Christians. My aim here is not to defend any position… Read More »Vote so as to obey the Second Greatest Commandment
The gospel is the boundary of Christian fellowship and cooperation, but the degree to which we cooperate with others who believe the gospel will be… Read More »Cooperation and Culture: Conclusion
Last week I argued that differences among philosophies of culture must necessarily affect cooperation on various levels of ecclesiastical cooperation. Having said this, it is… Read More »Philosophy and applications in the local church
Up to this point in this series, I have described the essence of conservative Christianity, particularly its philosophy of beauty and culture, and described the… Read More »Differences over philosophy of culture must always affect cooperation
Last week I suggested that biblical cooperation is not an “all-or-nothing” sort of thing, but is rather dependent upon the particular matter under consideration and the… Read More »Fundamentalism and a Conservative Philosophy of Culture
The purpose of this series is to ask the question of whether a conservative philosophy of worship and culture should affect ecclesiological cooperation. For the… Read More »The Center of Christian Unity
Last week I briefly summarized what I consider the first pillar of conservative Christianity–affirmation of transcendent truth, goodness, and beauty–and spent a bit of time… Read More »The Importance of Form