Congregational music can be an act of praise, a vehicle for theology, an action of embodied community, as well as a means to a divine encounter. This multidisciplinary anthology approaches congregational music as media in the widest sense - as a multivalent communication action with technological, commercial, political, ideological and theological implications, where processes of mediated communication produce shared worlds and beliefs. Bringing together a range of voices, promoting dialogue across a range of disciplines, each author approaches the topic of congregational music from his or her own perspective, facilitating cross-disciplinary connections while also showcasing a diversity of outlooks on the roles that music and media play in Christian experience. The authors break important new ground in understanding the ways that music, media and religious belief and praxis become 'lived theology' in our media age, revealing the rich and diverse ways that people are living, experiencing and negotiating faith and community through music.

About the Author
Anna E. Nekola is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Denison University, teaching in the departments of Music and Communication, as well as the Queer Studies Program. Her work appears in Popular Music; The Journal of the Society for American Music; Mediating Faiths: Religion and Socio-Cultural Change in the Twenty-First Century (Ashgate 2011); Christian Congregational Music: Performance, Identity and Experience (Ashgate 2013); The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology; The New Grove Dictionary of American Music; and The Oxford Handbook of Music and World Christianities. Tom Wagner is a teaching fellow at the Reid School of Music, University of Edinburgh. His work appears in The Australian Journal of Communication; Journal of World Popular Music; Religions as Brands: New Persepctives on the Marketization of Religion and Spirituality(Ashgate 2014); and Religion in Times of Crisis (2014). He is also co-editor of Christian Congregational Music: Performance, Identity and Experience (Ashgate 2013) with Monique Ingalls and Carolyn Landau.

Reviews
'A valuable collection that throws new light on how new media technologies are interacting with the practices of Christian music-making, music-leadership and music-participation in congregational settings. It provides significant insights also into how these wider processes of cultural mediation taken up in congregational music are provoking a wider re-thinking and re-formation of Christian communities, beliefs and identity.' Peter Horsfield, RMIT University, Australia 'Huge changes have occurred in Christian worship in the last fifty years. In the study of new and contemporary forms of worship, where would we be without the musicologists? Offering penetrating studies of contemporary changes, this volume is another welcome addition contributing to the study of Christian worship.' Lester Ruth, Duke University, USA



Book Information
ISBN 9781138569010
Author Anna E. Nekola
Format Paperback
Page Count 280
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g