“Church Music and Theology” (1959)

“Church Music and Theology” (1959)

Erik Routley (1917-1982), minister of Congregational Church in Scotland and chaplain in Oxford, wrote also “The Church and Music”(1950), “Hymns and Human Life” (1952), “The Music of Christian Hymnody” (1957), “The English Carol” (1958), “An English-Speaking Hymnal Guide” (1979) and “The Music of Christian Hymns” (1981).
He was music critic with a theological approach.
In 1957, Routley saw the disorder in the church music as a consequence of theological confusion.
To the God’s grace must correspond the self-retraint of the artist. In Routley’s time, the romantic ideal of the church musicians was seeking the melodic beauty. Actually, much of them seek the easy rhythm.
Inspired by Thomas Aquinas (“Summa Theologica”) and C.S.Lewis (“Pilgrim’s Regress”), Routley gives to church music a sense of theology, and to theology a sense of music.