The inaugural conference for the International Network for Music Theology took place on the 26th to the 27th of October 2024. This two-day conference, hosted at Durham University, brought together scholars, performers, and composers from across the globe and across the disciplines of music and theology. Presenters came from the USA and Europe, and with the addition of those online, papers were presented from Australia, Italy and the USA. The conference also hosted presenters from various stages of their careers. The committee were encouraged by the number of papers from PhD students, showing that there is continuing interest in emerging scholars to this field.
The papers were organised into sessions on archives, experience, worship, performance, globalisation, biblical interpretation, musical analysis, liturgy, and composition. Over the two days, 40 individual papers were given, including two themed sessions, alongside two keynotes and a closing panel session. The conference also hosted the book launch for Music and Spirituality: Theological Approaches, Empirical Methods and Christian Worship edited by George Corbett (University of St Andrews) and Sarah Moerman (University of St Andrews). Prepared responses to the book were given by conference committee members, who highlighted its major achievements and what it contributed to musicology, analysis, ethnomusicology, and composition. It was a fitting place for this book launch as several of the contributors were also presenting at the conference, and discussion was met with receptiveness by both the editors and delegates.
The first keynote speech, given by June Boyce-Tillman (University of Winchester), ‘An Inclusive Theology of Sound’, ranged wide in examples and application, reflecting her deep investment and years working in this intersection of music theology. This was drawn into a central concern of care and justice, listening to voices that have been overlooked in discussions surrounding music and theology. The theme of justice was also found in the session on “Music and the World”, especially in James Broad’s (Independent scholar) paper on UK Christian Rap music and Pentecostal theology.
A range of musical genres were engaged with outside of traditional sacred genres. One such grouping of this was the panel session put together by scholars from the University of St Andrews; Charles Howell, Benjamin Holstein and Elspeth Manders. Their panel, ‘Discographic possibilities: Theological Complexity in Pop Music’s Conceptual Albums’, advocated for a closer look at theology in often overlooked, secular contexts. Charles Howell argued that Willie Nelson’s album Spirit expresses spiritual spontaneity, with a rejection of the material in favor of the spiritual. Benjamin Holsteen considered the album Ghosteen by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, as a musical meditation on grief, and posited how it can be a theological reflection on death and loss. Elspeth Manders closed the panel, with her contribution ‘Theological Complexities in Heavy Metal Concept Albums’, arguing that the music of Celtic Frost, Symphony X and Candlemass can be heard as sites of religious significance and spiritual transformation.
The second keynote presentation was delivered by Chelle Stearns (The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology), entitled ‘Harrowed Poetics: Music Theology and Trauma’. In drawing on the work of trauma theology and music theology, she argued that the chaos of suffering is granted a unique structure in and through music, as music provides a way for the silence of trauma to be reimagined. She illustrated this in the work of James MacMillan, exploring how his depiction of Jesus’ experience on Holy Saturday, produces music that not only stares into the abyss of death, but follows where the body of Christ goes through to life in the resurrection.
The session on composition allowed composers to discuss how theology forms part of their approach. Chris Massa (Durham University) presented his work, “The Seven Last Words”, for solo piano, composed using a musical cryptogram to translate the text into the piano score. Tim Boniface’s (University of Cambridge) paper on jazz performance as theology in practice, showed through his own performance experience, the fruitfulness of jazz in re-encountering text. Like Massa, he argued that music was not just a means of providing a metaphor for theology but is itself a way to practice theology. Brian Inglis (Middlesex University) used two of his compositions that draw on medieval sources to create dialogue between religious practices and theologies of the Middle Ages and contemporary audiences.
The awareness of women’s voices past and present emerged in various papers across the two days. Brent Keogh (University of Technology, Sydney) drew upon the works of Hildegard von Bingen, forwarding a theistic ecomusicology that considers nature and the non-human in its ecosystem. Abigail Cawte (Durham University) showed how women are underrepresented as instrumentalists in charismatic Anglican worship bands, and how this is impacted by the musical style chosen by churches. Katie Ambrose (University of York) looked at the role of women within the technical roles of live-streaming choral services, and whether the changes that have been made to address the integration of girls and women into choirs, extends to technical roles and spaces. Hannah Willmann (University of Ottawa) made the connection between the globalisation of Anglican Church and how forms of colonialism are found in the music that was transmitted, and still in use within churches in the USA, Canada and Kenya.
The closing of the conference drew much discussion around Michael O’Connor’s (University of Toronto) paper, ‘Fifty Shades of Scholarship: Mapping the Bewildering Array of Methods in Music and Theology’. He tapped into an important discussion on the (inter)disciplinary implications of music theology. This discussion was brought up again in the final panel session, which included closing remarks from the keynote speakers, conference committee, Anne Harrison (Hymn Society of Great Britain) and Bennett Zon (University of Durham).
Overall, this conference furthered the discussion of music theology by hosting papers from a range of research interests and allowing space for researchers to network with each other. This is key to the principles of the network to be a collaborative group of scholars working to expand the field.
Abigail Cawte is a PhD student at Durham University, with Bennett Zon and Pete Ward, where she works across the disciplines of music and theology to research the role of gender in contemporary church music.