2004
Volume 52, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 0165-4322
  • E-ISSN: 3050-9947

Samenvatting

Abstract

This article explores how contemporary worship music functions as a practice in which holy impulses are sought and experienced. Drawing on Jan Martijn Abrahamse’s understanding of the sacred as a dynamic, relational reality that manifests within concrete cultural practices, the article approaches worship music not primarily as a textual or aesthetic object, but as a musical–liturgical practice. Engaging insights from philosophy of music (Small, Davies, Bicknell), theology, and hermeneutics (Gadamer), it analyzes how familiarity, repetition, embodied participation, and layered meaning-making contribute to experiences of divine presence. Within this framework, worship music acquires a sacramental dimension. Not as a ritual performed by human agents, but as a practice in which God is experienced as present and active. For many believers, contemporary worship music thus emerges as a space in which the sacred can become perceptible.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.5117/RADIX.2026.1.005.VISS
2026-03-01
2026-03-29
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Abrahamse, J.M. (2026). Heilige impulsen in een onttoverde wereld. Radix52(1), 67-82.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Begbie, J.S. (2000). Theology, music and time. Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Begbie, J.S. (2007). Resounding truth: Christian wisdom in the world of music. Baker Academic.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Begbie, J.S. (2011). Faithful Feelings: Music and Emotion in Worship. In J. S.Begbie & S. R.Guthrie (Red.), Resonant witness: conversations between music and theology (pp. 323-354). Eerdmans Publishing Company.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Bicknell, J. (2009). Why Music Moves Us. Palgrave Macmillan.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Davies, S. (1993). Emotions Expressed and Aroused by Music. In P. N.Juslin (Red.), Handbook of Music and Emotion: Theory, Research, Applications (Reprint Edition) (pp. 151-40). Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Gadamer, H.-G. (2014). Waarheid en methode: hoofdlijnen van een filosofische hermeneutiek. Uitgeverij Vantilt.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Guthrie, S.R. (2003). Singing, In The Body And In The Spirit. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 46(4), 633-646.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Ingalls, M.M. (2018). Singing the Congregation: How Contemporary Worship Music Forms Evangelical Community. Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Packiam, G. (2020). Worship and the World to Come: Exploring Christian Hope in Contemporary Worship. InterVarsity Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Ruth, L., & Lim, S.H. (2017). Lovin’ on Jesus: A Concise History of Contemporary Worship (Epub edition). Abingdon Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Ruth, L., & Lim, S.H. (2021). A History of Contemporary Praise & Worship: Understanding the Ideas That Reshaped the Protestant Church. Baker Academic.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Small, C. (1998). Musicking. Wesleyan University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. van Setten, C.R. (2014). Het icoon van de evangelische beweging. Laetare, 30.1.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Volf, M. (2002). Worship as Adoration and Action: Reflections on a Christian Way of Being-in-the World. In D.A.Carson (Red.), Worship: adoration and action (pp. 203-211). Wipf and Stock.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Ward, P. (2005). Selling Worship: How what We Sing Has Changed the Church. Authentic Publishing.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.5117/RADIX.2026.1.005.VISS
Loading
/content/journals/10.5117/RADIX.2026.1.005.VISS
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Soort artikel: Research Article
Keyword(s): contemporary worship music; liturgical theology; sacramentality; sacred experience
Dit is een verplicht veld
Graag een geldig e-mailadres invoeren
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error