WHAT DOES ‘CONTEMPORARY’ MEAN?

One of the most often used arguments by those who promote the idea that music which imitates current popular music should be used in Church worship is “well the hymns of old were contemporary in their day.” After thinking about this argument for a while, I’ve come up with a deep theological response to it…well duh!

Since “contemporary” means “existing, occurring, or living at the same time; belonging to the same time” then by definition, something that was written during a certain period of time is contemporary to that time. Saying, therefore, that a hymn was “contemporary” at the time it was written states the obvious but does nothing to bolster the idea that Church music should mimic the pop music of the current culture.

Current “contemporary” music can run the gamut from Classical to rap (if one considers that music). This was as true of times past as it is in our time. “Contemporary” music for any era has always been a number of different styles of music. The real question is not were the hymns of old “contemporary” at the time they were written but were they attempts to mimic the popular music of their day? Despite the tired old argument that “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” was written to the tune of a German beer drinking song (not true), there is really no evidence to suggest that to be the case.

Hymns written during the 1880’s and 1890's were not in the form of Straussian waltzes, nor were the hymns written during the 1920’s jazzy numbers to which one could dance the Charleston. Even up through the 1940’s and 1950’s church music did not mimic Big Band or Rock and Roll styles. In fact, this idea that the music of the church should sound like the music of the world is unique to the late 20th century western church.

My question is why are so many people willing to embrace this idea with open arms when many of those same people, if a doctrinal issue came along that had not been introduced to the church prior to 50 or so years ago, would look at it with suspicion?

I'll explore some of what I think the reasons are in a future post.