Here’s the reality: those of us blogging here fully realize that our positions are not popular. Not popular, I suppose, greatly underestimates the matter: for… Read More »Finding common ground in the missions debate
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… Read More »Differences and Universals in Music Across Cultures
In my handful of posts this month, I want to give some anecdotes from church history to inform us as to how missionaries, attempting to… Read More »A Humble Request and Prolegomena
In relation to critiquing other cultures in an age of cultural relativism, Titus 1:12-13 caught my eye a couple of years ago as I was… Read More »Paul and Cultural Critique: Titus 1:12-13
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… Read More »Vaughan William’s interest in English folk songs
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… Read More »Missions and Music
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… Read More »See the Babe in Manger Lowly
The concept often referred to as the humiliation of God the Son—the notion that the second person of the Trinity emptied himself of the full… Read More »See Amid the Winter's Snow
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… Read More »Conservative Christians will be committed to transmitting these worship forms to future generations
Over the years, I’ve become hesitant to sing “O Holy Night,” a Christmas song widely used as a solo because of its dramatic nature and vocal difficulty. Our… Read More »Incarnation Hymnody: "O Holy Night"
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… Read More »Distinguishing High, Folk, and Pop Culture
Millard Erickson, in his Christian Theology, speaks of two different approaches to contemporising the message of Christianity. One is to translate the message, and the other… Read More »Translating vs. Transforming
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… Read More »Conservative Christians will be committed to worship forms that have been nurtured within the community of faith
The section on prayer in John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion is surely one of the most beloved passages of that influential work. Therein,… Read More »Reverence in prayer
Continuing our series on incarnation hymnody, we take a look today at “Angels, from the Realms of Glory.” ___________________________ “Angels, from the Realms of Glory”… Read More »Incarnation Hymnody: "Angels, from the Realms of Glory"
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… Read More »Should western music be transplanted to missions church plants?
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… Read More »Conservative Christians will be committed to worship forms that foster ordinate affection toward God
A friend of mine once mused that it was at Christmas that Christians finally sing good hymns. Selah.1 And Chuck Bumgardner (here and here and… Read More »O Lord, How Shall I Meet Thee (More "Incarnational Hymnody")
Here is a spectrum of theological observations on the incarnation ranging over the past 1800 years. Helpful in the light of C. S. Lewis’s… Read More »Insights on the Incarnation, Ancient and Modern
We here continue our series on Incarnation Hymnody. Today: the ancient “Come, Thou Redeemer of the Earth” and the not-quite-as-ancient-but-still-very-old “Lo, How a Rose E’er… Read More »Incarnation Hymnody: "Come, Thou Redeemer of the Earth" and “Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming"