Mellifluous music in early Western Christianity

Book section : Chapter

This chapter explores the place of ‘sweet music’ in the early Western Church and its subsequent influence on the earliest theologies of music, of creation, and of God. The author begins by reflecting on the account of 4th-century bishop of Minorca, Severus, and his description of music’s role in the Christian conversion of Jews on the island. There it served as a miraculous and ‘mellifluous assault on the senses’, something that could evoke both delight or terror depending on the hearer’s condition, and was believed to be God’s own presence at work in the human soul. Harrison then turns to Augustine and how he developed his own theology – and psychology – of music in De Musica, drawing on the influence of the hymns of Ambrose of Milan. She explores Augustine’s account of the soul’s apprehension of sound, wherein a sensuous and spiritual experience is made possible by a God whose grace and providential order are diffused through His creation, despite humanity’s (and the world’s) fallen state. Throughout this early period, Harrison concludes, we see a Church fascinated by music’s pleasing sweetness as something beneficial to faith and ultimately a sign of God’s presence.

Authors: Harrison, C

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Routledge
• Host title: God's Song and Music's Meanings: Theology, Liturgy, and Musicology in Dialogue
• Pages: 3-18
• Chapter number: 1
• Series: Routledge Studies in Theology, Imagination and the Arts
• Place of publication: Abingdon/New York
• Publication date: 2019-07-23
• Acceptance date: 2017-02-01
• Edition: 1
• DOI: 10.4324/9781315585314
• EISBN: 978-1-315-58531-4
• ISBN: 978-1-4724-7864-1
• Language: English
• Subtype: Chapter