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My Song is Love Unknown: Liturgical Music and Rational Faith

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Gregory R. P. Stacey Open the ORCID record for Gregory R. P. Stacey [Opens in a new window]
Gregory R. P. Stacey*
Affiliation:
Leeds Trinity University
*
g.stacey@leedstrinity.ac.uk
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Abstract

Whilst philosophers have argued that musical experience provides evidence for theism, their discussions often fail to consider the aesthetic properties which give musical experience its distinctive character, or ways in which musical experience might support the beliefs of particular religious traditions. This paper begins to remedy this omission by examining how attention to liturgical music can provide rational support for Christian faith. I first explore music's emotional nature and impact, and its ability to embody Christian narratives and doctrines. In light of this discussion, I then introduce two probabilistic arguments for the truth of Christian orthodoxy, arguing that liturgical music can provide distinctive evidence for their premises.

Keywords

FaithMusicLiturgyEvidenceBeauty
Type
Original Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 103 , Issue 1105 , May 2022 , pp. 376 - 395
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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References

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25 Ibid., p. 47.

26 Exodus 15:1-18.

27 As summarised in e.g. the ‘Nicene’ creeds (of 325 and 381), and the ‘Athanasian Creed’. For an introductory treatment, see Emery, Giles, The Trinity: An Introduction to Catholic Doctrine on the Triune God (Washington DC: CUA Press, 2011Google Scholar).

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34 Begbie, Resounding Truth, p. 293.

35 Broadhead, ‘The Trine Triad’, pp. 24-8 Bertoglio, ‘A Perfect Chord’, pp. 494-7.

36 Cuneo, Ritualized Faith, pp. 126-44.

37 Ibid., p. 138.

38 Ibid., pp. 142-3.

39 Newman, John Henry, Essays Critical and Historical Vol. I (London: Longmans, 1907), p. 23Google Scholar.

40 We can characterise ‘epistemic probability’ in AAC in terms of what Swinburne calls ‘logical probability’: roughly, the ‘objective’ probability relations between hypotheses and evidence which determine the credences of rational (Bayesian) observers. One can present (AAC2) in Bayesian terms: P(e│h & k) > P(e│∼h & k), where the evidence (e) is the aesthetic and moral attractiveness of Christian narratives and doctrines, the hypothesis (h) is Christianity's truth, and (k) is background knowledge. On logical probability and Bayesian arguments, see Swinburne, Richard, The Existence of God: 2nd Edn. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 13��22; 52-72CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

41 Readers might wonder what AAC means by calling doctrines and narratives (etc.) “beautiful”. Is this to ascribe some “objective” property to objects which renders them beautiful (e.g. ordered proportionality) or else are objects called beautiful because they provoke certain reactions in observers (e.g. disinterested pleasure)? I do not intend AAC to depend on any controversial general analysis of beauty. The latter would require lengthy defence, and narrow AAC's dialectical appeal. Accordingly, for the purposes of AAC, to say that an object is beautiful is just to say (with admitted vagueness) that a significant proportion of people would describe it as beautiful on reflection. This suggestion is compatible with the observation that aesthetic standards vary, and with the claim that ascriptions of beauty are normatively grounded in objects’ intrinsic properties. Indeed, I assume that some intrinsic features of objects (e.g. internal harmony or coherence) are commonly perceived as beautiful.

42 See Confessions VIII.12; Plantinga, Warranted Christian Belief, p. 288.

43 Genesis 1: 31; Psalm 8:1, 19:1; Romans 1:20.

44 Viladesau, Theological Aesthetics, pp .105 - 118.

45 Wynn, Mark, ‘Musical Affects and the Life of Faith: Some Reflections on the Religious Potency of Music’, Faith and Philosophy 21.1 (2004), pp. 24-44Google Scholar.

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48 Ibid., p.398.

49 Bacon, What's Right, pp. 183-7; pp. 190-3.

50 Ibid. pp. 138-9.

51 Ibid. p. 188.

52 See n. 28.

53 Bacon, What's Right, pp. 50-52.

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57 This paper is written for the first birthday of Torquhil Colquhoun, who completes a triad. My thanks to Simon Hewitt, Tyler McNabb, and an anonymous reviewer for comments.