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

Changing hymn lyrics

Changing hymn lyrics

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Changing the lyrics of hymns we sing has a long, established precedent, and for good reason. If hymns are meant to be genuine expressions of corporate worship, then we should sing what we mean and mean what we sing. If a hymn is good, and yet there are one or two words or phrases we… Continue Reading

Martin Luther’s Worship Reforms

Martin Luther’s Worship Reforms

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At the heart of Martin Luther’s reformation of the Church were his reforms in worship. In celebration of Reformation Day, let us consider his influence. Roman Worship Innovations Although the specific dogmas we associate with Roman Catholicism today were not officially canonized until the Counsel of Trent in 1554-1563, many of the Roman Church’s heresy… Continue Reading

What does it mean to be “conservative”?

What does it mean to be “conservative”?

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This entry is part 1 of 7 in the series Defining Conservatism You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

The term “conservative” gets thrown around a lot, but do people really know what it means? We’ve progressed to the point, even among those who have a heritage in fundamentalism, where “conservative” is considered a bad word; something extra-biblical, un-biblical, and even anti-biblical. For example, a pastor from Arizona wrote the following on September 26,… Continue Reading

Piper on the Sufficiency of Scripture

Piper on the Sufficiency of Scripture

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Continuing to clarify a truly biblical understanding of Sola Scriptura (you can read other posts here and here), I post for your consideration John Piper’s thoughts on the topic: The sufficiency of Scripture does not mean that the Scripture is all we need to live obediently. To be obedient in the sciences we need to… Continue Reading

Is the Bible Enough?

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I continue to receive e-mails concerning seemingly more and more common explanations of Sola Scriptura that in effect strip it down to nothing more than what Kevin Bauder calls Nuda Scriptura. You can read a good explanation of the doctrine by Jason Parker here, along with links to more pertinent articles. Along the same lines,… Continue Reading

New authors will begin regularly posting on this site

New authors will begin regularly posting on this site

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I’m excited to announce that beginning next Monday, October 25, this site will be adding four additional regular authors to our article lineup. Up until now, I have written most of the articles published regularly on this site, with occasional guest contributors. Beginning next week however, we are adding four more regular authors: On Mondays,… Continue Reading

What Sola Scriptura means, and what it does not mean

What Sola Scriptura means, and what it does not mean

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In light of some recent sermons about music and the sufficiency of Scripture (about which I’ve received dozens of concerned e-mails), I’d like to link to a great summary of the what the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture means and what it does not mean by my good friend, Jason Parker: This is a… Continue Reading

Worshiping Worship

Worshiping Worship

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This chorus (written as a parody) reflects how many people approach worship today: Oh, I’m thinking of me praising Jesus, and loving the feeling I feel. When I think of his touch I am feeling so much that tomorrow I’ll praise him for real. Brian Wren, 1998 Praise Partners Publications. Continue Reading

New Choral Piece: "Psalm 148"

New Choral Piece: "Psalm 148"

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I was recently asked to compose a choir and orchestra piece in honor of Steve Allen’s 25 consecutive years as Music Pastor of First Baptist Church in Troy, MI (my home church). I was honored to be a part of the celebration, and last weekend I had the privilege of conducting the choir and orchestra… Continue Reading

Isaac Watts on the perpetuity of a sabbath

Isaac Watts on the perpetuity of a sabbath

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Several of the controversies which have risen, with regard to the sabbath, whether jewish or christian, and the holiness of it, though they are not of the highest importance among the doctrines and duties of christianity, yet neither are they mean and trifling; for as we ought not to release the souls and consciences of… Continue Reading

Hymnody Today: What Do We Do?

Hymnody Today: What Do We Do?

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This entry is part 13 of 14 in the series The Hymnody of the Christian Church You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

So where does this leave us today? I will conclude with several brief suggestions of we should be striving toward in our choices of hymns for corporate worship. Recognize the importance of form. Form shapes content. As we evaluate the hymns that we sing, we must not be content that our hymns simply say the… Continue Reading

Two Roads Diverged

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This entry is part 12 of 14 in the series The Hymnody of the Christian Church You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

The dethroning of the Church by Reason and the creation of pop culture left the Church in an awkward position. Its cultural influence was non-existent. As the culture around it plunged into sanitized paganism, the Church’s traditional forms became foreign. The Church was in Babylon, yet it was free to worship as it pleased. So… Continue Reading

Hymn advocates aren't always good hymn writers

Hymn advocates aren't always good hymn writers

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Benjamin Keach, a Baptist pastor in the late 17th century, is often credited as the first Englishman to provide a well-developed defense of the recovery1 of hymn singing (instead of exclusive Psalm singing). His advocacy paved the way for Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, and other significant English hymn writers. Just because you are a successful… Continue Reading

The Enlightenment and Christian Hymnody

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This entry is part 11 of 14 in the series The Hymnody of the Christian Church You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

This far in our journey we have witnessed an almost unbroken stream of Judeo-Christian tradition. From King David to Lutheran composer Johann Crüger (1598-1662) we find a slow and steady cultivation of poetic and musical forms. There were certainly bumps in the road and many changes along the way, yet for around 1800 years the quality… Continue Reading

50% off retail for many helpful worship resources

50% off retail for many helpful worship resources

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We’re trying to clear out some of our inventory, so we’re offering pretty significant discounts on several helpful worship resources. Get ’em while they last! Measuring the Music: Another Look at the Contemporary Christian Music Debate by John Makujina $6.50 The Beauty of Holiness: A Guide to Biblical Worship by Michael Barrett $7.50 Singing And… Continue Reading

Reformation Hymns

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This entry is part 6 of 14 in the series The Hymnody of the Christian Church You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

When Martin Luther (1483—1546) sparked a Reformation of the Church by nailing his Ninety-Five Theses to the Church door at Wittenberg in 1517, he challenged the Roman Church’s doctrine and practice, but never its musical forms. The musical forms of the Reformation continued to follow in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The most significant change Luther made for… Continue Reading

The Pre-Tridentine Roman Church

The Pre-Tridentine Roman Church

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I’ve had some good questions about the Medieval Church resulting from my recent article on medieval hymnody. I’d like to make a few short observations in response and explanation: I am certainly not implying that everything about the Church during the Middle Ages was good; it certainly was not. However, we must allow some leeway… Continue Reading

Medieval Hymns

Medieval Hymns

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This entry is part 10 of 14 in the series The Hymnody of the Christian Church You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

When Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in 313 with the Edict of Milan, and Christianity soon became the religion of the entire empire, the cultural conditions within which the Church thrived changed into a situation that had not been enjoyed since before the Hebrew exile. Soon the Church gained prominence over all aspects of politics and… Continue Reading