Practices of the Church

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Christian Art 

Christian Music

  • Mother Julian of Norwich - experienced a series of visions concerning the love of God. Julian had become ill, the local parish priest was sent for, he held before her crucifix and said 'I have brought you the image of your creator and saviour. Look at it and be strengthened'.
  • Why visualise God - God is invisible and cannot be seen by mortal human beings. This insight is fundamental to most religions with a strongly transcendent understanding of God. Christians want to depict God in some manner. Visualisation is a key theme in Christianity - meaning how the divine is presented visually. This is something to be contemplated without compromising the transcendence of God.
  • Panel Paintings were used to depict narratives concerning Jesus or static portraits of Jesus and his mother. In the early Middle Ages, the two dominant religious images were the Madonna and child and the crucifixion.
  • The Cross is a symbol of salvation, it is also a symbol of the Christian hope, in that it affirms the death that has been defeated through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The cross - an instrument of execution - became a sign of hope and transformation. There is no symbol that carries so much weight, authority, or recognition as the Christian cross.
  • Crucifixion Art - Houses/ churches are usually decorated with the cross to bring about personal devotion. Christian orthodoxy actually wanted to show the real suffering of Jesus and the salvation Crucifixion achieved.
  • "Music's power dwells not in the tones but in the echoes of our hearts". Oliver Wendell Holmes
  • Music comes from life of faith of a congregation so it should express the faith and form that faith. Music should draw its power from those who participate in its creation so music is an artistic event and provides a cohesive element in worship.
  • Types of Church music - traditional - hymns: tradition of congregational participation - Protestant and Catholics. Gospel - revivalist - evangelical music on themes of salvation and the Christian faith. Instrumental music - instruments are able to back up choral and congregational singing by playing the full range of vocal and harmony parts, usually played by trained musicians.
  • Catholic Music - Canticles - repetitive chanting, derived from Bible magnificat. The form of chanting that is probably best known is the modern world is the 'Gregorian Chant' which is readily available in high quality often made in monastic settings.
  • Protestant Reformation - Zwingli and Calvin did not regard music as having a proper place in Christian worship. However reformers like Luther allowed it and played an important part.

Christian Literature 

Prayer

  • Christian literature gets strongly positive attitude by some, seeing it as a powerful ally in the quest to foster the Christian faith. While others see literature as aliens for the Christian faith with a potential mislead.
  • C.S Lewis is a supporter of Christian Literature - argues that it provides a clear and more deep understanding of the Christian faith. He wrote books like Chronicles of Narnia - devoted to communicating the reasonableness of Christianity.
  • Richard Baxter - Criticises Christian literature and argues that literature encourages its readers to waster their time in recreation when they could be doing something more productive. He finds literature disquieting potential to be morally corrupting, He believes it actively promotes culture of falsehood.
  • Christian literature that are specifically written to serve the needs of Christians or the church as an institution - for example prayers, devotional works and sermons. Works of literature in general, e.g. stories, narratives, books. Works of literature that involves interactive with Christian ideas, school of thoughts, often written by the critics of Christianity e.g. Thomas Hardy.
  • Intercessory prayer - is an act of praying to a deity on behalf of others.
  • Petitional Prayers - is to make a request, so when they come to God in petition they are asking him to do something  - either for themselves or others.
  • Confessional Prayer - is to confess to God, often used in Catholic religion.
  • Thankfulness Prayer - a pray where you give thanks to God.
  • Worshipping Prayer - when leading worship during a church service or meeting- it can often be helpful to read an inspiring bible passage that reminds us of God's goodness and presence with us.
  • Jesus taught that God listens to prayers and accepts them. He also taught that God may not always answer it in the way you wanted but it would be for your benefit.
  • Jesus taught to pray privately in a place which is quiet and gives you full concentration.

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