Musical Offerings ⦁ 2024 ⦁ Volume 15 ⦁ Number 1 21 psalmody in worship for Calvin, and the promotion of music as a tool for worship for Luther. Calvin’s numerous quotations of Augustine appears as clarification of many topics regarding church music, including the trouble of combating the distractive nature of music, while Luther’s distinctive realization of music as a gift from God came from Augustine. It is important to trace the origin of Calvin and Luther’s views on church music, to see how Augustine influenced both reformers. Although Calvin and Luther came to drastically different conclusions, they both agreed with Augustine that worship was commanded in Scripture and should not be taken lightly. The New Testament does not provide practical instructions for musical worship, causing Augustine, Calvin, and Luther to have disparate conclusions. Similar interpretive differences regarding church music persist among Christians today. Christians can learn much from the example of these God-honoring theologians, namely that although there may be differences in how people worship, the heart behind the worship is more important than the form. Bibliography Anttila, Miikka E. Luther’s Theology of Music: Spiritual Beauty and Pleasure. Berlin, Boston: Druck: Hubert & Co. GmbH & Co., 2013. Arnold, Matthieu, ed. John Calvin: The Strasbourg Years (1538-1541). Translated by Felicity McNab. Eugene: WIPF & STOCK, 2016. Augustine. The Confessions. Translated by Maria Boulding. Villanova: Augustinian Heritage Instatute, 1997. Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Translated by Henry Beveridge. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1989. ——— Preface to the Genevan Psalter. Text taken from the facsimile edition of: Les Pseaumes mis en rime francoise par Clément Marot et Théodore de Béze. Mis en musique a quatre parties par Claude Goudimel. . . (1565), published under the auspices of La Société des Concerts de la Cathédrale de Lausanne and edited in French by Pierre Pidoux and in German by Konrad Ameln (Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag, 1935). https://www.ccel.org/ccel/ccel/eee/files/calvinps.htm. Garside, Charles. “The Origins of Calvin’s Theology of Music: 15361543.” The American Philosophical Society 69, part 4 (1979): 535.
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