Music Through the Eyes of Faith: A Study of Worship and the Theology of Creation for Christian Musicians and Students

by Harold M. Best

"Christian musicians know of the obligation to make music as agents of God's grace. They make music graciously, whatever its kind or style, as ambassadors of Christ, showing love, humility, servanthood, meekness, victory, and good example . . . Music is freely made, by faith, as an act of worship, in direct response to the overflowing grace of God in Christ Jesus." Co-sponsored by the Christian College Coalition, this thought-provoking study of music-as-worship leads both students and experienced musicians to a better understanding of the connections between music making and Christian faith. "Christian music makers have to risk new ways of praising God. Their faith must convince them that however strange a new offering may be, it cannot out-reach, out-imagine, or overwhelm God. God remains God, ready to swoop down in the most wonderful way, amidst all of the flurry and mystery of newness and repetition, to touch souls and hearts, all because faith has been exercised and Christ's ways have been imitated. Meanwhile, a thousand tongues will never be enough." Best relates musical practice to a larger theology of creation and creativity, and explores new concepts of musical quality and excellence, musical unity, and the incorporation of music from other cultures into today's music.

Genres: Music, Christian, Theology, Religion, Art, Christian Living, Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published May 14, 1993

About the author

Harold M. Best is emeritus professor of music and dean emeritus of the Wheaton College (Illinois) Conservatory of Music.

Prior to joining the Wheaton faculty in 1970, Dr. Best served as professor of organ and theory at Nyack (N.Y.) Missionary College. During his last two years at Nyack he served as Chairman of the division of music. Dr. Best received the B.S.B. form Nyack College, the M.A. from Claremont Graduate School, and the D.S.M. from Union Theological Seminary. His retirement in May 1997 was celebrated with the publication of a Festschrift, "The Oil is our Worship, The Water is our Service".

Dr. Best is the author of numerous articles on the relationship of Christianity to the fine arts, issues in arts education, and curriculum. His book Music Through the Eyes of Faith was published by HarperSanFrancisco in 1993. He composes in a wide range of media and styles, and his publications include both choral and organ compositions. He is also active at the national level as a lecturer, consultant and workshop leader.

Dr. Best is active at the national level of music and higher education. He is Past President of the National Association of Schools of Music and past Chairman of the Commission on Accreditation. In connection with this, he also serves regularly as a lecturer, evaluator and consultant in accreditational and curricular matters. In addition, he is a member of the ASCAP Standard Awards Panel.

At the local level, he is past President of the Board of Directors of the Glen Ellyn Children's Chorus and is Chairman of the Wheaton Municipal Band Commission.

Besides his professional work in music, Dr. Best has restored a 1954 Studebaker coupe and a 1956 Hawk and is presently at work on a 1953. He enjoys constructing radio-controlled airplane models, and furniture refinishing.

Dr. Best and his wife, Juel, have three children and four grandchildren. They are members of the Glen Ellyn Covenant Church where he was choir director from 1971 to 1996.

Reviews

[Baal Of · Rating 2 out of 5]

I try to read one book a year that is from a perspective directly counter to my own, either religious, political, mystical, etc. and this one, obtained from the great book giveaway at work a couple years back, was next on my queue. This book is directed at believers, and not at all intended for non-believers, so it lacks the Christian Apologetics approach of some of the other books I've read by Christians, and definitely avoids the outright hostile approach of many books by conservative pundits. For that alone, it gained an extra star. Given it's target audience, the discussions in this book make hundreds of assumptions, and also the basic assumption that the Bible is the word of god, and that god is real. Given I do not buy into those basic assumptions, I also don't buy into the hundreds of other follow-on assumptions made in this book, so it would be difficult to go through with any detail, but I can at least give a couple examples.
From page 20 "God is the first abstract, nonrepresentational imaginer, because what God first imagined and crafted did not represent or imitate anything." To accept this statement requires several unstated assumptions, which are not proven, starting with the existence of god, and continuing with the various qualities of this thing called god. Next it assumes that the claimant gets to to jump from saying "everything we humans know are representations of something else" to then saying that god doesn't abide by that same claim. No proof, just by definition. Needless to say, this is only convincing to someone who already believes.
From page 15 "music making is neither a means nor an end but an offering; therefore an act of worship. All music makers everywhere understand this and proceed accordingly." Here we have an example of the unintentional (I think) arrogance of this kind of belief, declaring something so abstract and broad to be universally true, and continuing on, without any evidence, as if the claim were established and true. But this kind of hubris is rampant throughout this book, and in fact the language in general is exactly the kind of stuff I grew up with.
One thing that I did like about Best is that he argues for musical pluralism, i.e. embracing many different kinds of music, which is nice contrast to the anti-secular music attitudes that shot through my parents' church when I was a kid. As much as he talks about the varieties of music that he does enjoy, his taste is rather mainstream, and he leaves out vast realms of music, especially anything electronic, experimental, or on the fringes of rock, for example psy-trance, industrial, shoegaze, IDM, prog rock, psychedelic, goth, dub, trip-hop, etc. Probably that's just his age showing, but it is still interesting that he adheres to what I would say is adult-safe music.
So did I actually get anything useful out of reading this book? Perhaps the reminder that religion in general, and Christianity specifically is still just as meaningless to me as it was when I finished rejecting it about 25 years ago, and I am a much happier and better adjusted person without it.

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most thought provoking books I have ever read. Harold Best’s ideas will break your categories of art, especially music, while helping the Christian better understand the role the arts have in worship and the world.

I especially was challenged in Best’s explaining and urging the need for plurality and authenticity in music. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the arts or interested in how Christian art collides with culture.

[David Meiklejohn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm, I expected a critique of music in churches, but we get a fairly long description first of what is worship, why musical diversity matters, and why excellence in music is so important. There is a bit of interesting stuff in the final chapters relating to musical worship in church, but I'm not sure I agree with a lot of what the writer says. He seems a bit snobbish in requiring high musical standards for his worship music, and in the amount of training he thinks the congregation should get in singing.
Maybe I should get a few lessons myself, right enough.

[Mathias · Rating 2 out of 5]

Things I learned from riffling through this book
- all music is good if it is not mediocre or worse, kitch, which means it is pretentious
- the conscience desides what is good or bad when in comes to not so mediocre music

- the drama of the musical structure is not fully understood by music professors at Yale

- modern theologians make a sharp distinction between symbolic language and musical language in a descartesian manner

[J.D.K. Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of the deepest, most theologically engaging books I've read in a while. It has inspired me to add another of Best's books to my list. It came entirely as a surprise, this old textbook from university that I had entirely forgotten suddenly blowing me off my feet. It's also done what no living breathing person ever has: led me to consider listening to country music.

[Kingsley Layton · Rating 4 out of 5]

'through the eyes of the Christian faith' would have been a better title. That said, some superb evaluations: particularly high and low music and also the concept of re-presentation in art as opposed to imitation. Some real spiritual lucidity in these regards.

[Jason Comely · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggled with this and eventually gave up mid-way. I consider Why Johnny Can't Sing Hymns by T. David Gordon to be a better book, although it seems to take the opposite view, a view I don't agree with.

It may just be me though, as my interest in this topic has petered out. At least for now.

[Cameron Schroeder · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastically challenging for anyone who works with church music. Take the generational context of this book into account, and then glean all the nuggets of wisdom from it you can- there are plenty to be had.

[Coram Deo Church]

Music Through the Eyes of Faith is not currently available at local libraries.

[Dan Disselkamp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent ideas and concepts. Can be a little long and dry.

[Tyra Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book challenges your thoughts whether you agree or disagree. There’s many things that I don’t agree with, but I really enjoyed the read.

[Jon Pentecost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Careful consideration of how Christians should think of music and the creative enterprise of music making.
This is a sort of foundations book--his examination is of music in general. Only the last two chapters focus specifically on music in corporate worship, and there only put out some basic tenets that are helpful, but only a starting point.

The best part of the book were his early chapters considering musical taste, moral judgments about different kinds of genre, and so on through the lens of conscience. Those chapters were applicable to much more than music.

[Matthew Burge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Best address a great many interesting questions about music philosophy from a Christian perspective. Sometimes they are profound, sometimes they are incoherent.

[Jane Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Best was the dean when I was at Wheaton. He is a brilliant man, talented musician, and deeply spiritual soul. This has been one of the most influential books on my shelf over the past 20 years because it challenges me to critically think about my music as an offering of worship. There are no "right" answers, only questions that lead to a deeper understanding of the role of music in my relationship with God. This book is not for the faint of heart nor the tired mind; however, it is worth the time and effort it takes to read it.

[Micah Loggins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raises a lot of great questions, but doesn't provide the same amount of answers. However, the answers it does provide are well worth the price of the book and the remaining questions are worth pondering.

[Karla Renee Goforth Abreu]

so-so nothing new, nothing I necessarily disagreed with, just so-so.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of the book was very helpful for me.

[Devin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Best does a great job engaging modern music biblically. If you've never considered how to think Christianly about music, check this one out.

[Daniel Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

An utterly beautiful and passionate book. I felt like I had been waiting to read it for years.

[Seth Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic and insightful view into how music making is to be done from a Christian worldview.