Music does not make itself. It is made by people: professionals and amateurs, singers and instrumentalists, composers and publishers, performers and audiences, entrepreneurs and consumers. In turn, making music shapes those who make it-spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally, socially, politically, economically-for good or ill, harming and healing. This volume considers the social practice of music from a Christian point of view. Using a variety of methodological perspectives, the essays explore the ethical and doctrinal implications of music-making. The reflections are grouped according to the traditional threefold ministry of Christ: prophet, priest, and shepherd: the prophetic role of music, as a means of articulating protest against injustice, offering consolation, and embodying a harmonious order; the pastoral role of music: creating and sustaining community, building peace, fostering harmony with the whole of creation; and the priestly role of music: in service of reconciliation and restoration, for individuals and communities, offering prayers of praise and intercession to God. Using music in priestly, prophetic, and pastoral ways, Christians pray for and rehearse the coming of God's kingdom-whether in formal worship, social protest, concert performance, interfaith sharing, or peacebuilding. Whereas temperance was of prime importance in relation to the ethics of music from antiquity to the early modern period, justice has become central to contemporary debates. This book seeks to contribute to those debates by means of Christian theological reflection on a wide range of musics: including monastic chant, death metal, protest songs, psalms and worship music, punk rock, musical drama, interfaith choral singing, Sting, and Daft Punk.

About the Author
Michael O'Connor is associate professor at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto. Hyun-Ah Kim is fellow of the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies in the University of Toronto, and Hardenberg fellow at Johannes a Lasco Bibliothek. Christina Labriola is doctoral candidate at Regis College, Toronto School of Theology.

Reviews
This is a much-needed volume. As the theology and music conversation develops, it is all too easy to forget the embeddedness of music in webs of social interaction, including the struggle for justice. An imaginative, sophisticated and highly readable collection. -- Jeremy Begbie, Duke University
What can music tell us about the nature of Christian justice? Music, Theology, and Justice teaches us in a probing set of compellingly argued essays spanning the middle ages to the present, from Hildegard to Daft Punk and Mechthild of Hackeborn to Sting...a significant contribution to the growing interdisciplinary field of music theology and an incisive exploration of inter-related concepts, histories and disciplines. -- Bennett Zon, Durham University
This is a deeply moving and strikingly original collection of essays, offering eloquent testimony to the transformative power of music as an agent of Christian ministry. The editors' approach to organizing their far-ranging materials according to the three Old Testament ministerial roles of prophet, shepherd, and priest as embodied in Christ is brilliant, creating a cohesive and compelling demonstration of the profound interlace between music, theology, and justice across an astonishingly wide span of space, time, and musical style. From medieval Germany to modern Bosnia, from plainsong to punk rock, the thirteen contributors chart music's potent ethical capacity to enact, express, and empower positive spiritual and social change. -- M. Jennifer Bloxam, Williams College



Book Information
ISBN 9781498538664
Author Michael O'Connor
Format Hardback
Page Count 250
Imprint Lexington Books
Publisher Lexington Books
Weight(grams) 544g
Dimensions(mm) 238mm * 159mm * 26mm