Musical Analogies in Theology

For those with eyes to see them, or should I say ears to hear them, it is suprising how often one comes across music analogies used in theological explanation or argumentations.

Examples include Barth, who had a portrait of Mozart on his study wall and even wrote a book about him. Tom Wright seems to like his music too: his anology of improvising on the theme of the Bible has been badly misunderstood by some.

Or take this, from Dr Field's blog:

We men may do what we will, Nebuchadnezzar may come and Genghis Khan and Mao Tse-tung; none of them can break God’s plans, but rather must fulfil them – against their will! Even though what we hear now is the dark minor tone, what is being played is still God’s symphony, and it will be played out to the end. The individual tones may think they are who knows what; they may want to assert themselves and swing out on their own. And yet they have all been composed into a score of which God alone is in command and in which everything, when it is heard from heaven’s vantage point, has its place in God’s succession of tones that end in his final chord. “The rich of this world are in process of going, but the kingdom of God is in process of coming,” Blumhardt once said. (Helmet Thelike's Sermons, p.295)

I know a woman in Christ who often says of these theological musical goodies that they are such "unmusical" comments: no contemporary musician or musicologist would have put it like that, she says.

Admittedly I don't know what I'm talking about when I try to do that kind of thing, but I imagine probably someone like Wright does. Maybe its a good thing to have harmonious theology that we can sing?

Vanhoozer's essay on praising God in song might have interesting things to add to this discussion - see my essay on my website.