The following is an interesting call to serious and thoughtful worship. I had to read it a few times to get it. The author starts . . .
The Missing Jewel
What follows is an oblique and public response to various unrecognized premises underlying a handful of recent [private and off-line, thus no links] conversations. I call it a catechism, but it is really only catechism-esque. It does not attempt a complete, systematic answer as catechisms do, and it certainly does not attempt to answer the questions that philistines suppose are important. Questions 3, 4, and 5, for example, are synecdochic: the principle applies not only to the instrument but to the performance and the work.
So this answers the questions that ought to be asked but aren't. It addresses premises which the philistines won't consider but should.
Given our grim state of affairs, I recognize this is a complete waste of effort. I do not imagine that anything remotely like serious reflection will follow. I do not think the church wants to fix what is broken. I do not believe those who currently profit from their own appetites are inclined to repent. So you must understand that this is rather an academic and theoretical exercise, but I offer it hoping that such an exercise can still provide some guidance when answering fools and degenerates.
And the rest of the eidtorial is done in a catechism format:
THE DISSIDENS CATECHISM
Q: What is the chief end of man?
A: The chief end of man is to love God and worship him aright.
Q: How is God to be worshiped?
A: God is to be worshiped in every human thought and conscious act, but he has most specifically commanded that men praise him with song.
And . . .
Q: Does art belong in worship?
A: There is no true worship without art in the same way that there is no statement of truth without grammar. A desultory recitation of mundane facts about God does not constitute worship. God's simplest act demands our most scrutinizing imagination and our highest expression of admiration (hence the need for the Bösendorfers...). Trite statements ambivalently executed on inferior instruments are not just unworthy of God, they are unworthy of man.
Q: What is the result of artless worship?
A: The hearts of the people are turned to all manner of wretchedness and profanity so that what is offered as worship is in fact self-indulgence.
You can read the rest of it here: Remonstrans
Blessings
3 John 8
Bill H
The Missing Jewel
What follows is an oblique and public response to various unrecognized premises underlying a handful of recent [private and off-line, thus no links] conversations. I call it a catechism, but it is really only catechism-esque. It does not attempt a complete, systematic answer as catechisms do, and it certainly does not attempt to answer the questions that philistines suppose are important. Questions 3, 4, and 5, for example, are synecdochic: the principle applies not only to the instrument but to the performance and the work.
So this answers the questions that ought to be asked but aren't. It addresses premises which the philistines won't consider but should.
Given our grim state of affairs, I recognize this is a complete waste of effort. I do not imagine that anything remotely like serious reflection will follow. I do not think the church wants to fix what is broken. I do not believe those who currently profit from their own appetites are inclined to repent. So you must understand that this is rather an academic and theoretical exercise, but I offer it hoping that such an exercise can still provide some guidance when answering fools and degenerates.
And the rest of the eidtorial is done in a catechism format:
THE DISSIDENS CATECHISM
Q: What is the chief end of man?
A: The chief end of man is to love God and worship him aright.
Q: How is God to be worshiped?
A: God is to be worshiped in every human thought and conscious act, but he has most specifically commanded that men praise him with song.
And . . .
Q: Does art belong in worship?
A: There is no true worship without art in the same way that there is no statement of truth without grammar. A desultory recitation of mundane facts about God does not constitute worship. God's simplest act demands our most scrutinizing imagination and our highest expression of admiration (hence the need for the Bösendorfers...). Trite statements ambivalently executed on inferior instruments are not just unworthy of God, they are unworthy of man.
Q: What is the result of artless worship?
A: The hearts of the people are turned to all manner of wretchedness and profanity so that what is offered as worship is in fact self-indulgence.
You can read the rest of it here: Remonstrans
Blessings
3 John 8
Bill H
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