In his 2d lecture, “The Ancient World and the Early Church,” in the Teaching Company series How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, Dr. Robert Greenberg lists three essential corollaries of the nature and use of music in the worship of the early church.
1. Music must remind the listener of divine and perfect beauty. “If it inspires only self-centered beauty, it is to be rejected. So music must be divine, not egotistic. It must prayerful, not hedonistic.”
2. Music is a servant of religion. Since non-vocal music cannot teach Christian thoughts, instrumental music must be rejected. . . . “We will not hear instruments used in the context of church music in the Christian church for about three or four hundred years.”
3. Pagan influences–such as large choruses, ‘majorish’ melodies, and dancing–must be rejected. All these “were associated with pagan festivals. These must be rejected.”
Immoderate 
Ryan,
This week I started a study on “new song” in the Psalms, and among the first passages is 33:1-3
1Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!
Praise befits the upright.
2Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;
make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
3Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
And of course there is Pslam 150:
3Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
4Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
5Praise him with sounding cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
It seems the Psalms allow for (and even command) thanking and priasing the Lord by making melody with instruments. Since you didn’t post any comments along with the three statements, I was wondering what your opinion of the second one is.
selah,
Brad
I posted these, not because I necessarily think the church ought to move in this direction, but because I found it interesting. There’s a couple things to note with these observations: 1) American evangelicals should not think that they are a replication of the early church. I can just see some YF’s today going up to Paul to explain to him how to have really vibrant singing in the churches. 2) We should open to the past and willing to learn from our Christian heritage.
I agree with the first point in principle, and wished churches would consider this in their worship. I do not believe the church should embrace the second argument, but believe we should at least be sympathetic to its sentiment. I believe that music itself (sans text) in fact can “communicate Christian thoughts,” or, at least thoughts consistent with Christian piety. Even so, I believe that the church can adopt the universal mandates in the Old Testament (such as Ps 150) as license for certain practices such as instrumental music. Having said that, we should not depend upon instruments in worship. I would have no problem attending a church that opted not to have instruments in worship, and would in fact prefer it to most today with instruments. On the third one too, I believe we should be sympathetic at very least. The sentiment there should also resonate in us (in addition to the fact that some of the most beautiful hymn tunes are minor).
On the third one too, I believe we should be sympathetic at very least. The sentiment there should also resonate in us (in addition to the fact that some of the most beautiful hymn tunes are minor).
I agree, but you should have seen the reaction when I had just the choir–not the congregation–sing Jesus Priceless Treasure.
hello, i have a christian friend in the “chuch of christ” who said that there was no instruments used in church music in the church untill the 18th century. is this true? can you send me information that will refute this claim?
Cliff,
Without question the early church worshipped without instruments. In fact, Everett Ferguson, who is both a member of the Church of Christ (as I understand it) and a well-respected early church historian has a book on this subject (that I would like to get). Eighteen centuries is a bit of a stretch, though, and about 1000 years late. The first organ appeared in Paris in the 8th century, and instruments may even have been used in the 7th century, though organs did not become prominent until around the turn of the first millennium. Reknowned church historian Johannes Quasten also has a book on Worship and Music in the early church that would probably be helpful on this topic.
For more information, I can offer these titles for the time being:
William T Flynn, “Liturgical Music” in The Oxford History of Christian Worship (New York: Oxford, 2006), 771-722.
Nick R. Needham, “Worship through the Ages,” in Give Praise to God (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publications, 2003).
Paul Jones gives a defense of the use of instruments in worship in “A Biblical Case for Instruments in Worship,” in Singing and Making Music (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publications, 2006), 23-31.
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