Tag Archives: affection

Secular Culture

Secular Culture

In blog posts over the last several weeks, I have been trying to help us understand what kinds of influences and values have converged to produce the culture in which we Christians in the West now find ourselves. I’ve explored some of the worldview values that have shifted; today, I’d like to begin exploring how… Continue Reading

Emotion

Emotion

This entry is part 41 of 63 in the series Ten Mangled Words You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Perhaps few words are as mangled as the word emotion. In this word is a cacophony of confusion. For some, emotion is nothing more than the superficial states of the body: neither moral, nor important. For others, emotion is the gold standard of sincerity: if you feel it, then you mean it, and lack of… Continue Reading

Why I believe gratitude is the most important worship affection

Why I believe gratitude is the most important worship affection

The affections of our hearts are central to true worship. Yet while praise, joy, contrition, and love are all important affections for worship, I believe gratitude is the most important worship affection. Here’s why: All true spiritual affections of worship have an object, and their object is always God. This is why true spiritual affections are… Continue Reading

Are emotions universal?

Are emotions universal?

This is a fascinating article in many ways. It traces the scientific debate concerning what, exactly, emotions are and whether they are universal or not. This issue has a good deal of relevance for discussions of the arts, for art, especially music, communicates at least on one level through mimicking human emotional expression. Here are… Continue Reading

Thankfulness as a central worship affection

Thankfulness as a central worship affection

I have a theory I’d like to explore more at a later time, but I thought I’d offer some thoughts about it today considering the season. My theory is that the affection most directly connected to worship is thankfulness. Here are some reasons behind this theory: I have an untested observation that the idea of… Continue Reading

What “moves” you in worship?

What “moves” you in worship?

Which of the following scenario is a more meaningful worship experience? The 100 member choir and 50 piece orchestra combine in a rousing performance of Bach’s Cantata No. 182, a piece composed for Palm Sunday. The stage is full with a professional band, complete with drums, electric guitars, and a praise team. As the music… Continue Reading

Letter to a Concerned Saint

Letter to a Concerned Saint

Dear saint, You have been reading about orthopathy and ordinate affection, and perhaps it all sounds rather perplexing and intimidating. The controversy around these matters is unnerving and unsettling, and you wish it would go away.  It has caused you some real anxiety. You are close to real distress, or worse, to dismissing the whole… Continue Reading

The problem with defining worship in any way by physical response

I’ve been teaching recently about the differences between Jonathan Edwards and Charles Finney. In most ways, these men, their philosophies, theologies, and practices are polar opposites. But if you study what these men wrote, you can’t  help but notice what appear to be similarities in what they said. And the deeper you look, the more… Continue Reading

Worship euphoria?

Worship euphoria?

Matt Costella notes here a recent study that finds megachurch worship to create similar physiological responses to that of drug use: The University of Washington just released a fascinating study which concludes that megachurches provide the same biological “high” and euphoria as that produced by sporting events and concerts. The only difference? Those who get “high” from the emotional… Continue Reading

Transmitting Imagination to our Children

Transmitting Imagination to our Children

This entry is part 7 of 8 in the series Preserving the Truth in our Worship You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

I have suggested in this series that in order to preserve the truth in our worship, we must be concerned about how we are shaping the imagination in the presentation of biblical truth. This is no more important than with our children. It is my fear that most Christians do not recognize that before a child… Continue Reading

Worship Wars and Warriors

Worship Wars and Warriors

Editor’s note: the following essay appears as the foreword to Scott Aniol’s book, Worship in Song: a Biblical Approach to Music and Worship. This highlights some of the perspe ctive from which Kevin Bauder will be teaching his upcoming tuition-free class: “Knowing and Loving God.” Worship wars. It’s a new phrase, but it expresses a… Continue Reading

Finding common ground in the missions debate

Finding common ground in the missions debate

This entry is part 5 of 14 in the series Missions and Music You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

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 many Christians today, our positions are not even fathomable—it is impossible for them to believe that anyone could hold a position as outlandish, and even as offensive, as ours. And… 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

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

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

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

Musical Form in Christian Hymnody

This entry is part 5 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.

Musical form shapes content in very similar ways to poetic form, yet it is a bit more abstract and thus considerably more difficult to readily recognize. But because music communicates by mimicking natural human expression, anyone can discern the basic meaning of music by simply listening closely and asking a few penetrating questions. Music contains… Continue Reading

The Purpose and Power of Christian Hymnody

The Purpose and Power of Christian Hymnody

This entry is part 2 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.

Last time we observed the fact that we sing because the Bible commands us to sing. But let’s get a little bit deeper than simply singing because we’re told. Why, exactly, has God told us to sing in worship? We can certainly recognize why he commands things like preaching and praying and reading the Scriptures.… Continue Reading

Podcast: God-Centered Worship with TJ Klapperich & Scott Williquette, Part 2

Podcast: God-Centered Worship with TJ Klapperich & Scott Williquette, Part 2

In part 2 of this podcast, Scott Aniol talks with TJ Klapperich and Scott Williquette about the regulative principle of worship, what the difference is between conservatives and progressives, and the influence of charismatic theology on worship. [podcast]http://www.religiousaffections.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Podcast_-God-Centered-Worship-Part-2.mp3[/podcast] Download Subscribe to our Podcast! iTunes | RSS Continue Reading