Taking seriously the practice and not just the theory of music, this ground-breaking collection of essays establishes a new standard for the interdisciplinary conversation between theology, musicology, and liturgical studies.

James Hawkey is Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey, and a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, UK.

Ben Quash is Professor of Christianity and the Arts and Director of the Centre for Arts and the Sacred at King's College London, UK.

Vernon White is Visiting Professor in Theology at King's College London, UK. Until recently he was also Sub-Dean and Canon Theologian at Westminster Abbey.

Preface, Vernon White Part 1: The Meanings of Music in Western History 1 Mellifluous Music in Early Western Christianity, Carol Harrison 2 'We Prefer Gods We Can See': Music's Mediations Between Seen Things and God in the Patristic and Medieval Periods, Nancy van Deusen 3 Hearing Revelation: Music and Theology in the Reformation, Jonathan Arnold 4 Music, Atheism, and Modernity: Aesthetics, Morality, and the Theological Construction of the Self, Gareth Wilson Part 2: The Work of Worship and the Meanings of Music 5 The worship of God and the quest of the Spirit: 'Contemporary' versus 'Traditional' Church Music, Gordon Graham 6 Musical Promiscuity: Can the Same Music Serve Sacred and Profane Ends Equally Well? Lucy Winkett 7 Mixing their Musick: Worship, Music, and Christian Communities, James Hawkey Part 3: The Meanings of Music and the Mystery of God 8 The Malleable Meanings of Music, John Butt 9 The Material, the Moral and the Mysterious: Three Dimensions of Music, Ben Quash 10 Absolute Music / Absolute Worship, Daniel K.L. Chua 11 Afterword, Jeremy S. Begbie