Listening to Popular Music: Christian Explorations of Daily Living (Compass) - Softcover

Compier, Don H.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0800698916 ISBN 13: 9780800698911

Publisher: Fortress Press,U.S., 2013

Synopsis

Many Christians regularly enjoy listening to rock and roll, blues, country, and hip-hop while driving in the car, jogging, or relaxing in the den, and most would not censor lyrical themes rarely found in "Christian music." Often we justify our practices by describing this guilty pleasure as just entertainment or relaxation, accepting the divide between what liturgical theologian Don Saliers has called "Saturday evening and Sunday morning".

Reflecting on music from the Beatles to Los Lobos, Don Compier argues that Christian faith shapes what we hear while in turn positively contributing to Christian spiritual formation. In exploring how musical styles have been received and resisted throughout Christian history, and critically engaging issues of commerce and social justice, he shows how attention to the situated spirituality of listening breaks down the supposed split between the "sacred" and the "secular" in contemporary Western culture.

About this title

Review

The political parties in the United States continue to ignore the twin, globally decisive, questions of income distribution and ecological catastrophe. These questions are central to this book. Most Christian responses to these apocalyptic challenges talk about what other people, governments, or corporations should be doing. This book addresses us as Christians and invites us to live as Christians. If thousands of readers take this challenge seriously, we may yet be effective workers with God in the salvation of the world. --John B. Cobb Jr., The Center for Process Studies, Claremont, California

About the Author

Don H. Compier is founding Dean and Professor of Theology at Community of Christ Seminary, Graceland University, Lamoni, Iowa.

David H. Jensen is the Academic Dean and Professor in the Clarence N. and Betty B. Frierson Distinguished Chair of Reformed Theology at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He is the author of several books, including "God, Desire, and a Theology of Human Sexuality" and "Living Hope: The Future and Christian Faith", both published by Westminster John Knox Press.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fortress Press,U.S.
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0800698916
• ISBN 13: 9780800698911
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 128
• Editor: Jensen David H.