Pop Music Spirituality
Simple Overview
a simple overview for students in e-course offered by
Byrd and Jay McDaniel in an influential online platform
for 21st century spirituality, Spirituality and Practice
sign up for the two month course, receive two emails a week from Byrd and Jay,
participate in learning circles, and be in conversation with other students
about the intersection of pop music and spirituality, by clicking here
Hello friends,
We hope this course stretches your ears and your minds. As the course unfolds, you will be introduced to many different ideas, each of which could be treatises for a book. What we send you are emails of rughly 1000 words each. Our own hope is that someday the many ideas we explore with you will be turned into a book. Together we are exploring a theme (Pop Music Spirituality) that is at the leading edge of religious and theological consciousness. We are charting relatively new ground. There's a bit written on popular music and religion, but not much on popular music and spiritually.
Our thesis is straightforward. It is that, in combination with other circumstances, popular music functions in the lives of many people as an introduction to, and catalyst for, spiritual growth and aliveness. It provides momentary touches of transcendence, a sense of connection with the world, a way of getting in touch with the emotional side of life, and an opportunity to understand and appreciate the feelings of others. It helps awaken people to the moods and emotions highlighted by Mary Ann and Frederic Brussat in their spiritual alphabet.
We hope this course stretches your ears and your minds. As the course unfolds, you will be introduced to many different ideas, each of which could be treatises for a book. What we send you are emails of rughly 1000 words each. Our own hope is that someday the many ideas we explore with you will be turned into a book. Together we are exploring a theme (Pop Music Spirituality) that is at the leading edge of religious and theological consciousness. We are charting relatively new ground. There's a bit written on popular music and religion, but not much on popular music and spiritually.
Our thesis is straightforward. It is that, in combination with other circumstances, popular music functions in the lives of many people as an introduction to, and catalyst for, spiritual growth and aliveness. It provides momentary touches of transcendence, a sense of connection with the world, a way of getting in touch with the emotional side of life, and an opportunity to understand and appreciate the feelings of others. It helps awaken people to the moods and emotions highlighted by Mary Ann and Frederic Brussat in their spiritual alphabet.
This is true for people who believe in God, for people who do not, and for people who are somewhere in between. It is true for the religiously affiliated, the secularists and naturalists, and for spiritual independents. Spirituality can be found within religion, but it alo transcends it.
For people who believe in God, there will be a need to ask how God might be present in popular music. Here process theology can help. If, along with process theologians, we think of God as an indwelling lure toward a realization of the spiritual modes and practices identified by the Brussats, and also a receptacle for the worlds joys and sufferings, then God can be at work in and through popular music. The dichotomy between the sacred and secular is transcended, the sacred is in the secular.
Much popular music revolves around two themes: romanticism (the search for intimacy) and transgression (the crossing of conventional boundaries). We deal with these two themes in week Seven of the course, but it is good to keep them in mind as the course unfolds. Another theme of much popular music is erotic power and bodily pleasure. We deal with this topic in week Three of the course. We believe that the Spirit can be at work through, and present in, the romantic desire for intimacy, the transgression of conventional norms, and bodily pleasure.
The effects of popular music can be quite good for human life, but also destructive. We recognize that popular music can function in ways that lead to narcissism, greed, and hatred. When it functions in this way it is not, to our minds, spiritually helpful. But our focus in the course in how it can be spiritually nourishing. We hope you enjoy the course and will raise questions along the way.
Byrd and Jay McDaniel
For people who believe in God, there will be a need to ask how God might be present in popular music. Here process theology can help. If, along with process theologians, we think of God as an indwelling lure toward a realization of the spiritual modes and practices identified by the Brussats, and also a receptacle for the worlds joys and sufferings, then God can be at work in and through popular music. The dichotomy between the sacred and secular is transcended, the sacred is in the secular.
Much popular music revolves around two themes: romanticism (the search for intimacy) and transgression (the crossing of conventional boundaries). We deal with these two themes in week Seven of the course, but it is good to keep them in mind as the course unfolds. Another theme of much popular music is erotic power and bodily pleasure. We deal with this topic in week Three of the course. We believe that the Spirit can be at work through, and present in, the romantic desire for intimacy, the transgression of conventional norms, and bodily pleasure.
The effects of popular music can be quite good for human life, but also destructive. We recognize that popular music can function in ways that lead to narcissism, greed, and hatred. When it functions in this way it is not, to our minds, spiritually helpful. But our focus in the course in how it can be spiritually nourishing. We hope you enjoy the course and will raise questions along the way.
Byrd and Jay McDaniel