Interview:

Most would agree that, if nothing else, music is a unique and mysterious form of human expression. Further, few would contest that music communicates on a more or less visceral plane, the level of feelings and emotions. Since these components of our humanity, feelings and emotions, are deeply united with our religious disposition, music is, and has proven to be historically, intimately connected with spirituality. In the Bible, music is exalted as the primary organ for worshiping the Triune God. But a biblical perspective recognizes other legitimate purposes for music as well, not the least of which is simply for enjoyment. Music lifts us to a higher state of being, satisfies our aesthetic impulse, and occupies our imagination. It provokes the image of God within us, and in fact confirms that image by exhibiting attributes inherent to God and absent from even the most intelligent animals. Under those conditions music is unquestionably spiritual. But since the fall of man, the image of God has been acutely defiled by sin. Included within this corruption are man’s affections and his ability to distinguish between music that possesses aesthetic merit and music that does not. Nevertheless, the popular Christian understanding of aesthetics takes exactly the opposite position, by assuming that man’s sense of taste is beyond criticism, perversion, and censure. For Christians to do justice to the doctrine of human depravity, however, they must apply it equally to the domain of aesthetics. The nexus between music and spirituality demands that Christian musicology remains consistent with its anthropology.

“Music lifts us to a higher state of being, satisfies our aesthetic impulse, and occupies our imagination. It provokes the image of God within us.”
– Dr. John Makujina, author of “Measuring The Music: Another Look At The Contemporary Christian Music Debate”