"He Who Sings, Prays Twice"? Singing in Roman Catholic Mass Leads to Spiritual and Social Experiences That Are Predicted by Religious and Musical Attitudes.

Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann,Klaus Peter Dannecker,Thijs Vroegh,Sven Boenneke

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.570189

Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann, Klaus Peter Dannecker + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.570189

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Abstract

Singing is an essential element in every religion. In the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church, theologians expect congregational singing to have several clear-cut effects which can be translated into psychological hypotheses. This study is the first to approach these quantitatively. N = 1603 Catholics from German-speaking countries answered an exhaustive questionnaire that asked whether and to what degree these putative effects were actually experienced by churchgoers. We found that people do, to a large degree, associate feelings of community and spiritual experiences with congregational singing. We also identified relevant intraindividual factors that contribute to the frequency of these experiences, most importantly, religious and musical attitudes. These results are discussed in the light of psychological literature on the effects of group singing on social bonding and wellbeing, but also in the context of theological, ethnomusicological, and sociological research on singing, songs, and spiritual and social experiences.

Highlights

Song and singing are paramount in the rituals of every known religion (Beck, 2006)
Outside the scope of the Church, our research adds to the growing body of psychological research on the effects of group singing, focusing on a specific socio-cultural context
We have contributed to the so far scarce quantitative evidence on singing experienced as a religious activity

Summary

Introduction

Song and singing are paramount in the rituals of every known religion (Beck, 2006). It is performed by individuals, specific groups, and entire congregations and is expected to have a range of effects and functions that directly contribute to the efficaciousness of the ritual. This claim is especially valid for Christianity, with singing in both public and private worship having played a prominent role since the early Church (Gelineau, 1964; Page, 2010). After centuries of a primarily clerical liturgy in which the liturgical chants and hymns were performed by specialized ensembles (the schola or cappella), the assembly’s active role, with regard to singing and the authorization of vernacular hymns, was reinstated, first by the Protestant denominations in the sixteenth century, by the Roman Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council of 1964–1968.

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