Christ's Three-Fold Coming in Music

by Nathaniel Peters

When taken neat, the Oratorio’s musical beauty and theological simplicity drive home the power of Christ’s coming in all its forms. Continue Reading »

23 Dec 2016

Leonard Cohen, Religious Alchemist

by Sean Curnyn

Cohen is an Old Testament poet who can comprehend the New Testament without great strain or contradiction. Continue Reading »

18 Nov 2016

Leonard Cohen, the Christ-Haunted

by Joe Heschmeyer

Though he would often protest that he “wasn’t really a religious man,” Cohen seemed unable to sing or speak for very long without bringing up God. Continue Reading »

17 Nov 2016

If It Be Your Will

by Douglas Farrow

The famous Montreal poet and songster, Leonard Cohen, died earlier this week. Continue Reading »

12 Nov 2016

Dylan’s Nobel in Perspective

by Stephen Schwartz

The Swedish Academy has a strange idea of what “the great American song tradition” is. Continue Reading »

1 Nov 2016

Suzuki Method Uberparenting

by Betsy VanDenBerghe

Spiritually as well as emotionally, childhood years require not only joy and nurturing, but also suffering and growth, if the young person is to face adulthood maturely. And fortunately (or ironically), our musically obsessed phase never ended up shielding my kids from anything. Continue Reading »

11 Oct 2016

Learning to Play

by Elizabeth C. Corey

My piano tuner is well over eighty years old. Each time I call him, I fear I’ll learn that he has died. So far he is still with us, though at each visit a little more white-haired and frailer than before. I worry that he will hurt himself when he lies under the instrument or takes out the . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Oct 2016

Alone in the Garden?

by Richard J. Mouw

On Evangelical hymns: Can I really sing about a relationship with the Lord that is so joyous that no other person has ever experienced it? Doesn’t this go beyond the bounds of hyperbolic spiritual enthusiasm? Continue Reading »

1 Jul 2016

Music Man

by Peter J. Leithart

Readers often find the opening chapters of 1 Chronicles stultifying. These pages contain list after list of names, with occasional mini-biographies thrown in to break up the monotony. Chronicles is hardly the first place we turn to for deep insight into human nature. Yet the fact that Chronicles . . . . Continue Reading »

17 Jun 2016

Songs of Exile

by Alexi Sargeant

Where has all the dark Christian music gone? It doesn’t take much listening to notice how blithe and breezy popular Christian music has become. At the data journalism site FiveThirtyEight, Leah Libresco has run the numbers and found that the lyrics of recent Christian hits skew towards life, . . . . Continue Reading »

7 Jun 2016