Taking seriously the practice and not just the theory of music, this ground-breaking collection of essays establishes a new standard for the interdisciplinary conversation between theology, musicology, and liturgical studies.

Preface, Vernon White Part 1: The Meanings of Music in Western History 1 Mellifluous Music in Early Western Christianity, Carol Harrison 2 'We Prefer Gods We Can See': Music's Mediations Between Seen Things and God in the Patristic and Medieval Periods, Nancy van Deusen 3 Hearing Revelation: Music and Theology in the Reformation, Jonathan Arnold 4 Music, Atheism, and Modernity: Aesthetics, Morality, and the Theological Construction of the Self, Gareth Wilson Part 2: The Work of Worship and the Meanings of Music 5 The worship of God and the quest of the Spirit: 'Contemporary' versus 'Traditional' Church Music, Gordon Graham 6 Musical Promiscuity: Can the Same Music Serve Sacred and Profane Ends Equally Well? Lucy Winkett 7 Mixing their Musick: Worship, Music, and Christian Communities, James Hawkey Part 3: The Meanings of Music and the Mystery of God 8 The Malleable Meanings of Music, John Butt 9 The Material, the Moral and the Mysterious: Three Dimensions of Music, Ben Quash 10 Absolute Music / Absolute Worship, Daniel K.L. Chua 11 Afterword, Jeremy S. Begbie