Musical Eschatology in Contemporary Christian Worship Songs

Abstract

This article examines musical expressions of the Christian doctrine of eschatology in Contemporary Worship Music (CWM), a subgenre of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM). Taking an interdisciplinary approach that combines recent scholarship on pop-music analysis and Christian studies of CWM, I analyze the lyrics and the music of select contemporary worship songs to interpret how their phrase rhythm, form, and tonal design convey and enhance eschatological ideas in the text. The findings address the purported superficialities in CWM’s eschatological content both musically and theologically, and challenge Christian worship leaders and practitioners to consider the skillfulness and artistry of CWM, especially in the areas of phrase rhythm, phraseology, formal proportions, and strategic deployment of tonal resolutions, when evaluating and selecting contemporary worship songs for congregational singing.