A Song to Sing, a Life to Live
Reflections on Music as Spiritual Practice
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
Celebrating the spirit of song
In A Song to Sing, a Life to Live, Don and Emily Saliers help readers see the connections between Saturday night music and Sunday morning music by exploring the spiritual dimensions of music itself. They tell the stories of their own lives in music, and they share what they have learned and observed about the power of music in human life. They help us appreciate the joy of music and also how music carries us into places of sorrow, where we must go if we are to live with honesty about ourselves and compassion for others.
This book is for churchgoers and spiritual seekers alike. Music is described in terms of spiritual practice; it has the power to embrace those who are deeply immersed in the life of Christian faith and speak to those who are spiritual but may question formal religion.
The book explores a wide variety of musical traditions and offers an invitation to embrace a broader and deeper vision of the power of music and the spiritual dimensions of attentive listening. "This is a beautiful expression of music as many things--healer, gift, symbol of freedom and community, and agent of change" (Mary Chapin Carpenter).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Two respected musicians from wildly different venues add a new volume to the Practices of Faith Series on Christian spirituality, this one on the spirituality of music. Don Saliers, a church musician and professor of theology and worship at Candler School of Theology, teams up with daughter Emily, one-half of the popular group the Indigo Girls, to write a warmly personal book about the healing power of music as it "encodes life, most especially shared life." Although Emily's music is labeled "Saturday night" and Don's "Sunday morning," they want readers to have "crossover experiences" in which we find the sacred in all authentic and truth-revealing music, regardless of genre. The authors address the "worship wars" taking place in churches over which type of music is the most welcoming to newcomers, warning churches not to dismiss either traditional or new music, but to look for music from many styles and cultures that challenges us to encounter mystery. Pull up a chair and sit in the family room as these two share the places where their views on music connect and diverge, demonstrating how to "make musical judgments, but not in a judgmental manner." Musicians, music-lovers and indeed all those devoted to the "spirituality of daily life" will be inspired.
