Jazz and Christian Freedom: Improvising Against the Grain of the West (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781532649592)

Contemporary Western society has a strange relationship with freedom. Unbridled subjective liberty and narrow fundamentalism pull away from each other in mutual loathing while sociological forces seek to manipulate both sides. The church needs to recover and reconstruct a theology of freedom to navigate between the perils of both extremes and to avoid being manipulated by these forces. Just as biblical figures are taught through parables and metaphors, this book uses jazz improvisation as an analogy for Christian freedom. Just as jazz improvisation relies on successfully navigating constraints such as the history and traditions of jazz, jazz theory, and musical instruments, so Christian freedom also relies on constraints such as the biblical canon, church history, theology, and the church itself. Through understanding the freedom jazz musicians enjoy in making music together, we can better understand how Christian freedom might be enacted in daily life. If Western churches discover and enact Christian freedom in a meaningful way, the songs that they improvise will be as siren calls to people in chains.

Author: Bradley K. Broadhead
ISBN-10: 1532649592
ISBN-13: 9781532649592
Publisher: Pickwick Publications
Language: English
Published: 12/21/2018
Pages: 244
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.73lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.51d