Scott Aniol

Scott Aniol is the founder and Executive Director of Religious Affections Ministries. He is Chair of the Worship Ministry Department 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.

Author Archives: Scott Aniol

The Purpose of Music in Missions

The Purpose of Music in Missions

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This entry is part 10 of 14 in the series Missions and Music You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

The purpose of culture is not to reach the lost or give authentic expression for Christians; it is to express and cultivate right worship. In my last article I addressed the argument for using contemporary music forms based on a missions philosophy that stresses indigenous ministry. I suggested that such an argument is based upon… Continue Reading

Defining pop culture

Defining pop culture

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This entry is part of 6 in the series Vaughan Williams on Culture You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Unfortunately, according to Cecil Sharp and Vaughan Williams, folk music as an art is largely dead, and this provides the first evidence of a distinction between folk and pop music in their thought. With a chain of events including the Industrial Revolution and the creation of mass media came the emergence of a new form… Continue Reading

Distinguishing high culture from folk culture

Distinguishing high culture from folk culture

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This entry is part of 6 in the series Vaughan Williams on Culture You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

A primary goal of Vaughan Williams was, of course, to compose art music. His many hours finding and indexing folk tunes resulted in the use of many of those melodies in his own compositions. As such, a distinction between art and folk music in his understanding is self-evident. Cecil Sharp, however, makes this distinction more… Continue Reading

Differences and Universals in Music Across Cultures

Differences and Universals in Music Across Cultures

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This entry is part 4 of 14 in the series Missions and Music You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

A missionary cannot properly evaluate the differences among cultural expressions until he has understood their universals. At the root of the most thoughtful defenses of contemporary worship today is an appeal based on a missions philosophy that stresses indigenous ministry. If, as the International Missionary Council asserted as far back 1938, an indigenous church is… Continue Reading

Vaughan William’s interest in English folk songs

Vaughan William’s interest in English folk songs

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This entry is part of 6 in the series Vaughan Williams on Culture You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

An interest in English folk songs emerged in England toward the end of the nineteenth century. By 1898 the Folk Song Society was founded, and rising composer Ralph Vaughan Williams joined the Society in 1904.1 The Society had been perfectly comfortable simply discussing folk music in the abstract until an influential folk tune advocate named… Continue Reading

Missions and Music

Missions and Music

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This entry is part 1 of 14 in the series Missions and Music You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

One of missionaries most challenging issues is what kind of music to use as they plant indigenous churches. Two extremes exist: on the one hand are missionaries who simply impose American musical forms on the foreign church; on the other hand are those who indiscriminately adopt the forms of the native culture in their worship.… Continue Reading

See the Babe in Manger Lowly

See the Babe in Manger Lowly

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See the babe in manger lowly, with His mother, meek and mild. Here the Godhead now incarnate, Wholly God and yet a child. Lying in a bed for livestock, This, the Prince of heav’n was He, Human flesh and blood and body– Hypostatic Deity. See the angels praise His coming, He their King from heaven’s… Continue Reading

Conservative Christians will be committed to transmitting these worship forms to future generations

Conservative Christians will be committed to transmitting these worship forms to future generations

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This entry is part 7 of 7 in the series Defining Conservatism You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Conservative Christianity, at its heart, is committed to preserving transcendent ideas rooted in the very nature and character of God. It seeks to accomplish this goal through the conservative of a tradition that has nurtured the expression of those ideas for ages. If our goal as conservative Christians is to conserve biblical worship and continue to… Continue Reading

Distinguishing High, Folk, and Pop Culture

Distinguishing High, Folk, and Pop Culture

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This entry is part of 6 in the series Vaughan Williams on Culture You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

A common error exists frequently in contemporary discussions of the use of folk idioms as a compositional element in art music. Many authors today equate folk music with popular forms such as jazz, rock, and blues. In fact, the terms “folk” and “popular” have unfortunately come to be synonymous in conventional speech. For instance, George… Continue Reading

Conservative Christians will be committed to worship forms that have been nurtured within the community of faith

Conservative Christians will be committed to worship forms that have been nurtured within the community of faith

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This entry is part 6 of 7 in the series Defining Conservatism You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

In order to conserve transcendent ideas about God, conservatives are committed to worship regulated by God’s Word, and they are also committed to discerning between true religious affections and mere physical appetites in worship. Such discernment is difficult, however, because all of us are products of our culture. If a distinction between religious affections and… Continue Reading

Should western music be transplanted to missions church plants?

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On Saturdays we repost articles from the archives that apply to current issues. The following article deals with what music should be used for indigenous church planting. _________________________________________ Here is a question about culture and missions I recently received by e-mail: I am intrigued by this idea of culture and music. It seems a number… Continue Reading

Conservative Christians will be committed to worship forms that foster ordinate affection toward God

Conservative Christians will be committed to worship forms that foster ordinate affection toward God

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This entry is part 5 of 7 in the series Defining Conservatism You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

If we truly desire to be governed by and to preserve transcendent ideas about God, then our worship must be regulated by God’s Word. This commitment to the Regulative Principles of Worship solves the question of what we will include in our corporate worship, but it doesn’t necessarily address how we will do it. Conservatives have always recognized that… Continue Reading

Multiculturalism veiled as "Missional"

Multiculturalism veiled as "Missional"

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I thought I’d post a helpful discourse by Dave Doran in his journal article on “Market-Driven Ministry,” which answers well recent justification of a neutral view of culture and music by a claim to being “missional.” Doran describes the market-driven philosophy as one that is pragmatic in several crucial areas, one of which is their view… Continue Reading

Conservative Christians will be committed to worship regulated by the Word of God

Conservative Christians will be committed to worship regulated by the Word of God

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This entry is part 4 of 7 in the series Defining Conservatism You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

If, as I have suggested, Christian conservatism stands upon two primary pillars (a commitment to align one’s ideas with transcendent absolutes that are rooted in God himself and a commitment to preserve those traditions that have best expressed those transcendent ideas), then we may draw at least four very important implications for Christian worship. If you’ve wondered… Continue Reading

Can biblical principles about music be applied across cultures?

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On Saturdays we repost articles from the archives that apply to current issues. The following article deals with the issue of cross-cultural musical meaning. The original article can be found here. __________________________________________________ The theme of the latest issue of “Worship Notes,” written by Ron Man, is “Making Musical Choices.” Man writes, The most consistently asked question of… Continue Reading

Conservative Pillar II: Nurturing Tradition

Conservative Pillar II: Nurturing Tradition

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This entry is part 3 of 7 in the series Defining Conservatism You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Christian conservatism stands upon two primary pillars: 1) a commitment to align one’s ideas with transcendent absolutes that are rooted in God himself; and, 2) a commitment to preserve those traditions that have best expressed those transcendent ideas. In this essay I will explore the second of these twin pillars. In order to understand the… Continue Reading

T. David Gordon endorses Worship in Song

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I had the the pleasure of meeting T. David Gordon, author of the excellent new book Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns, a few weeks ago at a conference. He was as engaging in person as he is in his book, and I enjoyed our conversations. During one of his workshop sessions, he mentioned that more… Continue Reading

Conservative Pillar I: Transcendent Absolutes

Conservative Pillar I: Transcendent Absolutes

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This entry is part 2 of 7 in the series Defining Conservatism You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

I have suggested that the twin pillars of conservatism are 1) an affirmation of transcendent absolute principles of truth, goodness, and beauty; and 2) a commitment to conserve those institutions and forms that best reflect a recognition and respect for this transcendent order. In this post I will examine the first of these pillars. A… Continue Reading