A History of Contemporary Praise and Worship: Understanding the Ideas That Reshaped the Protestant Church by Lester Ruth and Lim Swee Hong

Abstract

Reviewed by: A History of Contemporary Praise and Worship: Understanding the Ideas That Reshaped the Protestant Church by Lester Ruth and Lim Swee Hong Paul Westermeyer A History of Contemporary Praise and Worship: Understanding the Ideas That Reshaped the Protestant Church. By Lester Ruth and Lim Swee Hong. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2021. 420 pp. Ruth is professor of Christian worship at Duke University, and Hong is Professor of Sacred Music at Emmanuel College of Victoria University. They wrote Lovin' on Jesus: A Concise History of Contemporary Worship (Nashville: Abingdon, 2017) and call the title of this book a "neologism" (xvi) to encompass two theologies which flowed together. "Praise & Worship" emphasized "praise as the pathway to God's presence," and "Contemporary Worship" was a "strategic approach" to evangelism. The authors see this book work as a comprehensive, detailed, sympathetic, descriptive, and scriptural history, not theological in the sense of what God was or was not doing, [End Page 110] and told from a North American standpoint (xiv–xv). They see its distinction from other studies in its focus on how "these Christians wrestled with the foundational text of their religion, the Bible" (307) which allows them "to see this history as part of a long-standing approach in Protestantism called the Free Church tradition" (308). This is a carefully researched and detailed study. Part 1 gives the history of praise and worship, part 2 the history of contemporary worship, and part 3 the confluence of the two. Subheads proceed historically: 1, headwater, 1946–65; deepening the channel, 1965–85; increasing currents, 1965–85; and a swollen river, 1985–95; 2, subterranean stirrings, pre-1965; first wave of contemporary worship, 1965–85; and second wave, 1985–mid-1990s; 3, the new liturgical normal, late 1990s. An appendix summarizes the two histories in parallel columns of small print (311–313). Lutherans will see works righteousness in the assertion that praise leads to worship and brings us into God's presence (84), that God "inhabits"—"is enthroned"—on our praise and is "liberated to act mightily" (91). In this view, our work gets God to do something. Lutherans will note further that when Protestants adopted bands without the praise and worship theology, another kind of works righteousness emerged with music becoming a tool to sell Christianity. We, not God, sustain the church, by selling it with music that will attract customers (176). Worship is marketing (224). Lutherans and others may see "new measures" here as the German Reformed theologian John Williamson Nevin saw their nineteenth century roots (see 172 and 206)—a "Montanist Phrygian dance" (The Anxious Bench [1844], 27–9). The book discusses trends from Youth for Christ, church growth movements, and business models with numerical quotas as well as inculturation efforts with popular musical styles intended to close perceived generational and other gaps between the church and our society's culture. As might characterize a Free Church movement, word and sacraments are not discussed except to indicate that "a musical worship leader" in this tradition is "not a minister of the Word of God or of the sacraments, i.e. a pastor." A paradox nonetheless emerges that church musicians are "typologically" [End Page 111] associated "with the priestly [italics mine] musicians of David's tabernacle" (133). Another paradox, though not treated as a paradox, is that this form of attracting people led to worship wars (284–5) and exacerbated divisions. Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Protestants who view themselves as evangelical catholics will object to the liturgical iconoclasm present in these movements. Inculturation strongly linked to secular musical forms and instruments troubles Orthodox and others with the early church's concerns about associations of idolatry and immorality. Various people, among them youth and seekers, say that this music is "manipulative, insulting, and makes me sick to my stomach," notwithstanding the large crowds it drew. This book will evoke strongly different reactions from readers. It will help both groups—those who agree and those who disagree—to understand the movements it describes and their influences. The authors have attempted to explain them sympathetically and accurately without committing to them. The book's detail takes sustained effort, but is worth reading. Paul Westermeyer...