Singing the Congregation: How Contemporary Worship Music Forms Evangelical Community (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780190499648)

Contemporary worship music shapes the way evangelical Christians understand worship itself. Author Monique M. Ingalls argues that participatory worship music performances have brought into being new religious social constellations, or "modes of congregating". Through exploration of five of these modes--concert, conference, church, public, and networked congregations--Singing the Congregation reinvigorates the analytic categories of "congregation" and "congregational music."

Drawing from theoretical models in ethnomusicology and congregational studies, Singing the Congregation reconceives the congregation as a fluid, contingent social constellation that is actively performed into being through communal practice--in this case, the musically-structured participatory activity known as "worship." "Congregational music-making" is thereby recast as a practice capable of weaving together a religious community both inside and outside local institutional churches.

Congregational music-making is not only a means of expressing local concerns and constituting the local religious community; it is also a powerful way to identify with far-flung individuals, institutions, and networks that comprise this global religious community. The interactions among the congregations reveal widespread conflicts over religious authority, carrying far-ranging implications for how evangelicals position themselves relative to other groups in North America and beyond.

Author: Monique M. Ingalls
ISBN-10: 0190499648
ISBN-13: 9780190499648
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Language: English
Published: 10/12/2018
Pages: 272
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.00w x 0.70d

About the Author
Monique M. Ingalls is Assistant Professor of Music at Baylor University. Her work on music in Christian communities has been published in the fields of ethnomusicology, media studies, hymnology, and religious studies. She is Series Editor for Routledge's Congregational Music Studies book series and is co-founder and program chair of the biennial international conference "Christian Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives."