Towards A Sacramental Understanding of Charismatic Sung Worship.

SACRAMENTAL SUNG WORSHIP 1/67 NICK J DRAKE
TOWARDS A SACRAMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF

CHARISMATIC SUNG WORSHIP: THE MEDIATION OF GOD’S
PRESENCE THROUGH CORPORATE SINGING.
Nick J Drake
MA Systematic Theology 2006-2008
Dissertation
DATE: 12.09.08 WORD COUNT: 15, 612.

INTRODUCTION
1. ‘A THEOLOGICAL INNOVATION’: CHARISMATIC SUNG WORSHIP
DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTION
A. ENCOUNTER AND “INTIMACY’: THE TELOS OF SUNG WORSHIP
B. ‘A FLIGHT OF SPIRITUAL FANCY’: ENCULTURED EXPERIENTALISM.
C. UNMEDIATED SPIRITUAL IMMEDIACY: THE NON-SACRAMENTAL

CHARGE
D. CONCLUSION
2. THE SACRAMENTAL TRADITION: ENCOUNTER AND MEDIATION
A. THE ROLE OF THE SIGN: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SYMBOL

AND REALITY
B. THE RELATIONAL NATURE OF THE SACRAMENTAL ENCOUNTER
C. THE ROLE OF THE WORD, FAITH AND THE SPIRIT IN ENCOUNTER
D. A THEOLOGY OF MEDIATION: THE ECONOMIC TRINITY
E. CONCLUSION
3. THE SACRAMENTAL MEDIA OF CHARISMATIC SUNG WORSHIP
A. THE SACRAMENTAL MEDIA THAT IS WORDS
B. THE SACRAMENTAL MEDIA THAT IS MUSIC
C. THE SACRAMENTAL MEDIA THAT IS WORDS AND MUSIC: ‘SONG’
D. CONCLUSION
4. TOWARDS A SACRAMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF CHARISMATIC

SUNG WORSHIP: BEGINNING THE DISCUSSION
CHALLENGES
A. AFFIRMATIONS
CONCLUSION
TOWARDS A SACRAMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF CHARISMATIC

SUNG WORSHIP: THE MEDIATION OF GOD’S PRESENCE THROUGH
CORPORATE SINGING.
INTRODUCTION
“…as the Mass is for Catholics and the sermon is for Protestants, so the singing of
songs is for Charismatics.”1
How, why, and when do God’s people encounter the presence of the risen Christ as
they gather together as his bride, his body, the Church. Or, from the opposite vantage
point: how does God continue to relate to his world whilst remaining distinct from his
world, mediating his grace, communicate his love, revealing himself? These deep and
old questions are posed by Pete Ward’s assessment of the priority placed upon
corporate singing by the Charismatic movement over the last four decades. At the
heart of this singing-centric movement2 is a ‘theological innovation’3, or more
critically a, ‘sinister development’4: the claim that in and through corporate singing,
God is encountered, and His presence experienced in a particular way. A claim that
has traditionally been the sole ownership of the sacraments (and for some the ministry
of the word) has been commandeered. The liturgical locality of encounter has shifted.
Drum kit has replaced altar, PA system has displaced pulpit and if worship lies at the
ideological core of the Charismatic movement5, then the surprising claim is that there
1
P.Ward, Selling Worship, Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2005, p.199.
2
For discussion of how best to define and identify the ‘movement’ see J.H.Steven, Worship
in the Spirit: Charismatic Worship in the Church of England, Carlisle: Paternoster Press,
2002, p.5.
3
Ward, p.197.
4
D.Albrecht, Rites in the Spirit: A Ritual Approach to Pentecostal/Charismatic Spirituality,
Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999, p.182.
5
See A.Brown, “Charismatically-orientated Worship” in D.A.Carson (ed.), Worship:
Adoration and Action, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2002, pp.178-88.
is a ‘sacramental reality’ lying hidden at the heart of Charismatic spirituality.
The first aim of this study is to begin the process of formulating a systematic account
of this claim for encounter in sung worship6. At a basic level, my thesis is that the
sacramental tradition, with its articulations of presence and theologies of mediation,
provides a rich seam from which to gleam a vocabulary and theology for reading and
critiquing charismatic worship. By bringing together these two ostensibly disparate
traditions in a ‘sacramental understanding’ of sung worship, I hope to extend the
currently limited language used within the movement to explain and account for its
claims whilst also providing the foundations for future inter and intra-tradition
discussion.
My proposal that a ‘sacramental theology’ of charismatic sung worship is not only
possible but extremely desirable is motivated also by the current wave of criticisms of
the movement. Both Ian Stackhouse7 and John Colwell8 criticise sung worship for its
emphasis on immediate felt experience and implicit underlying denial of the
mediateness of God’s presence9. They both, in different ways, espouse a return to the
traditional sacraments by declaring the apparent poverty of charismatic sung worship
in comparison10. I hope to counter this argument by disputing their understanding of
mediation. Firstly through a detailed examination of the relationship between matter
and spirit, sign and spiritual reality; and secondly through advocating a Trinitarian
account of mediation and encounter based on the work of Colin Gunton, but with
6
D.W.Hardy and D.Ford highlight the need for a “systematic exposition of praise” in their
seminal work: Jubilate, Theology in Praise, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1984,
p.153.
7
The Gospel-Driven Church, Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2004.
8
Promise and Presence, Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2005.
9
Colwell, p.13, Stackhouse, p.125.
10
Stackhouse, p.127: sung worship is “non-sacramental”.
Calvinist emphases and Irenaen roots.
Interestingly, the agenda to re-energise and emphasise the role of the traditional
sacraments within the Protestant denominations comes within a wider context of an
emerging realization of the lack of presence and encounter in church gatherings:
“[people] may expect to receive a welcome, the warmth of friendship…children’s
work and youth work, comfortable seating, engaging preaching – but even the most
theologically unaware and undiscerning expect something more profound from or
through a church: they expect to be encountered by God.”11
Bishop Lindsay Urwin in the latest (2008) book to emerge from the ‘Fresh
Expressions of Church’12 movement within the Church of England also bemoans
services which are “devoid of the power of sacramental encounter”13 and begs the
church to, “recover…[a] love for the sacraments and… belief in them as places of
divine encounter”14. Whilst David Brown, in the last of his trilogy on sacramental
theology writes:
“The Church surely needs once more to ask what aids people’s experience of God
and what does not”15.
The third element of my thesis is thus that sung worship should be considered as part
11
Colwell, p.257.
12
See www.freshexpressions.org.uk
13
L.Urwin, “What is the role of sacramental ministry in fresh expressions of church?”, in
Mission-shaped Questions, (ed. S.Croft), London: Church House Publishing, 2008, p.32.
14
Ibid, p.29.
15
D.Brown, God & Mystery in Words, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, p.80.
of the answer to the very rediscovery and re-imagination of the ‘sacramental space’ of
encounter and experience of God that is so needed in the church in England today.
In progressing through the paper my methodology will be to firstly describe and
define charismatic sung worship and its claims. By building on the fieldwork of
James Steven’s “Worship in the Spirit: Charismatic Worship in the Church of
England”, and outlining some of the charges brought by Stackhouse and others, I aim
to extrapolate what I have hinted at here in the introduction and establish the
questions of mediation and notions of encounter I wish to interrogate in later sections.
This opening sketch of the form of charismatic worship also serves as the background
to my later sacramental reading of its components in chapters 3 and 4.
The second section of my paper will outline the principle contours of historical
sacramental theology with particular reference to the seminal influences of Aquinas
and Calvin. I will pay special attention to understandings of the role of matter in
sacramental encounter and the relationship between sign and signified, symbol and
reality before concluding with a wider discussion of mediation and the related
question of the nature of divine presence or ‘grace’.
The third and fourth movements in my work mark the marriage of the two traditions
described in chapters 1 and 2, delivering the beginnings of a systematic account for
the mediation of God’s presence through corporate singing. In chapter 3, by utilising
the work of Anne Loades, David Brown, and Jeremy Begbie in particular, I outline
some of the qualities of the ‘sacramental media’ that is charismatic sung worship and
discuss how the form of music and song function ‘sacramentally’. In chapter 4, I
reflect further and more specifically on some of the implications of advocating this
sacramental understanding of charismatic worship: What does this reading affirm
about Charismatic practice and what does it challenge and offer correction to? I
conclude with suggestions for future research and a brief outline of how sung worship
and the traditional sacraments should relate.
I write as the Director of Music for a large Anglican church in London working
within the Evangelical Charismatic tradition16. The primary focus of this paper will
therefore be on Charismatic worship within the Church of England. Due to limits of
space, I will not be able to offer a comprehensive analysis of all aspects of such
worship or of theologies of the sacraments, but my hope is that this relatively short
work can reinvigorate the theological study of evangelical-charismatic theology and
practice and provoke further discussion as to the rather important matter of how the
Church communicates and co-operates with God’s gracious presence and action in
Christ by the Spirit, to meet His people.
16
St Paul’s Hammersmith: www.sph.org
1. ‘A THEOLOGICAL INNOVATION’: CHARISMATIC SUNG WORSHIP
A. DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTION
“The key to the Charismatic Movement is its worship. Its influence upon the future is
more significantly in the sphere of worship than elsewhere…”
Colin Buchanan17
The Charismatic Movement has been described as a movement whose, “raison d’etre
has been the worship of God”18. ‘Worship’ lies at the core of the movement and it is
in worship that what is distinct about the Charismatic church is most transparent to
those on the outside19. The UK has been the source of some of the central songwriters
and leaders, many of whom have come from within the Anglican church specifically
– Matt Redman20, and Tim Hughes21 being the most well-known. This embrace of
charismatic worship within Anglicanism has been consolidated by and embodied in
the values of the New Wine annual conferences which attract over 30,000 people
each year22. Although practice varies from church to church23, it is possible to identify
a consensus of core ‘ritual elements’24 found in Charismatic worship. I will outline
these below in order to help define the form of Charismatic worship and provide a
platform for future discussion. For this task I will build on the work of Nigel
Scotland25, Steven26, and Ward27 in particular.

17
C.O.Buchanan, Encountering Charismatic Worship, Nottingham: Grove Books, 1977, p.9.
18
Steven, p.10.
19
N.Scotland, Charismatics and the New Millennium, Guildford: Eagle, 2000, p.58.
20
Originally from St Andrew’s Chorleywood, Watford. www.mattredman.com
21
Worship Pastor at Holy Trinity Brompton, London. www.worshipcentral.org
22
www.new-wine.org/summer/Summer%20Conferences.htm accessed on 11.09.08
23
For discussion of what is the minimum definition of charismatic worship: Steven, pp.3, 55.
24
Steven, p. 92.
25
Charismatics and the New Millennium, Guidford: Eagle, 2000.
26
Particularly Ch.6, pp.91-134.
27
Selling Worship, Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2005.
The principle distinctive is the priority given to music and singing within the typical
Charismatic liturgy. The ‘worship’ or ‘block of worship’28 is the name given to the
time spent in song as a gathered congregation which can be anything from fifteen
minutes to an hour29. The block can often contain within it varying amounts of
repetition of songs or sections of a song30, and the songs themselves are distinct in
musical and lyrical content31, often much simpler than more traditional songs and
hymns32. The songs ‘flow’33, musically and thematically, throughout the block
creating a unified musical experience. Crucially this is in sharp contrast from the non-
charismatic use of congregational singing, whereby songs or hymns are generally
sung singularly within the liturgy of a service34.
The essential element in facilitating a ‘block of worship’ is the ‘worship leader’35;
usually a lay person36 who sings and often also plays guitar or keyboards. The non-
essential element is the ‘band’, comprising at least the core instruments: drums, bass
and electric guitars37. The style of music, generally described as folk to soft-rock,
reflects the band used. Besides providing the accompaniment for the congregational
singing, the worship leader and band facilitate the ‘flow’ of the block by using
instrumental links and creating musical interludes between songs. The worship leader
and band are located at the front of the church facing the congregation38, enabling
28
Steven, p.92; cf. Scotland, p.59.
29
Scotland, p.59; cf. Ward p.199 and Steven’s case study of ST C’s (pp.92-96).
30
Scotland, p.59; cf. Steven, pp.92-96.
31
Steven, pp.102-108; cf. Ward, pp.121-162.
32
Scotland, p.58.
33
34
Ward, p.198.
35
Steven, p.92.
36
Scotland, p.59; cf. Steven, p.100.
37
See Steven, p.97 for more.
38
There are exceptions to this, see Steven, p.98.
SACRAMENTAL SUNG WORSHIP 10/67 NICK J
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greater visibility and presence with which to exercise their leadership of the
congregation39.
The worship leader has a very complex and demanding role, balancing a variety of
demands and tasks40. Typically they will:- (i) select all of the songs to be sung by the
congregation41; (ii) act as musical director for the band; (iii) lead the congregation in
the melody line; (iv) offer prayers (often extemporaneously); (v) signal repetitions
and lead musical interludes; (vi) encourage congregational participation. Besides
these practical tasks, the worship leader is also expected to lead ‘in the Spirit’42,
creating a sense of unpredictability and spontaneity within the ‘block’ of worship.
High levels of congregational participation are encouraged and expected in
Charismatic worship43. This can include the use of spiritual gifts such as tongues and
prophecy44, as well as the use of testimony and prayers of thanksgiving or
intercession45. Individual or corporate physical expressions of worship are also
present and encouraged46 – including clapping, raising of arms, opening of hands,
closing of eyes, kneeling down, lying facedown, and even moving the whole body in
improvised dance. This has been called the ‘expressive revolution’ 47 of Charismatic
worship.
39
Ibid, p.101.
40
Ibid pp.100-102 for Steven’s discussion of this.
41
Ibid, p.100.
42
Ibid, pp.177-183. Steven refers to, “the key element of openness to the Spirit’s action
within the assembly”, p.182.
43
Ibid, p.100.
44
Scotland, p.59.
45
Singing in tongues corporately, creating a, “‘cathedral of sound’ in which to worship”, is a
phenomenon closely associated with the movement: Hardy and Ford, p.19.
46
47
D.Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain, London: Unwin Hyman, 1989, p.241
(cited in Steven, p.115).
DRAKE
B. ENCOUNTER AND ‘INTIMACY’ – THE ‘TELOS’ OF WORSHIP.
For Charismatics, the purpose of singing together is not only to glorify God, to
corporately express thanksgiving, to facilitate surrender, teach doctrine and encourage
one another, but to personally and corporately encounter the presence of God48. The
‘time of worship’ has a purpose, or goal – to ‘break through into the presence of
God’49 and enable the church to ‘experience God now’50. For Charismatics, singing
causes something to ‘happen’.
What happens and how it happens has proven difficult for those within the movement
to precisely articulate. In this regard charismatic worship is a prime example of what
Rowan Williams identifies as ‘informal theology’51: the notion of ‘encounter’ in sung
worship in essence being an experienced led, praxis embedded, pre-reflective
theological move. Typical expressions of ‘encounter’ and ‘presence’ therefore tend to
be primarily experiential and more often than not, individualized, in nature. Scotland
for example writes of, “the warmth of the presence within” and observes that,
“people’s emotions and feelings are brought into touch with the presence of God”52.
To engage in sung worship is to, “bring God’s presence close to the
worshippers...”53, and, “an increase in the power and presence of God into the
meeting”54. In every day language, it is not uncommon for Charismatics to assess a
48
See e.g., A.Brown, “Charismatically-orientated Worship” in Worship: Adoration and
Action, p.181. Cf. Ward, p.199 and Steven, pp.118-130.
49
Scotland, p.64.
50
A.Brown, p.185.
51
R.Williams, On Christian Theology, Oxford: Blackwell, 2000, p .xiii.
52
Scotland, p.68.
53
Ibid.
54
Ibid, p.76.
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block of worship on whether ‘God showed up’55.
However, the vocabulary most commonly and widely used to convey the goal of sung
worship is the language of ‘intimacy’56. The late John Wimber, the founder of the
Vineyard Churches – a key influencer on the Anglican charismatic movement in the
UK57 – expresses this goal as follows:
“We are headed towards one goal: intimacy with God. I define intimacy as belonging
to or revealing one’s deepest nature to another (in this case to God), and is marked
by close association, presence and contact.”
For Wimber, authentic worship was defined by a personal experience of meeting and
experiencing God in this intimate way58. True worship was singing which enabled the
congregation to make, “intimate contact with God”59 within a service. The time of
worship thus became identified as a ‘journey’ – a progression with an identifiable
goal. Old Testament Temple imagery was most often used to voice this movement
towards encounter:
“The Old Testament seems to indicate a ‘gradual’ in worship. There were Psalms of
invitation to worship, of ascent – going up to the city of God, entering the Temple
gates, coming into the courts of the Lord and delighting in the very presence of God,
seeking his face.”60
55
Ibid.
56
See Ward, p.199.
57
Through Holy Trinity Brompton, London.
58
Scotland, p.63.
59
Ibid, p.64.
60
D.Pytches, Come Holy Spirit, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1985, p.260.
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Songs play a crucial role in facilitating this journey to intimacy 61. As the time of
worship progresses towards its goal, songs about God often become songs to God62;
songs which remind the congregation of God’s nature and attributes and salvation
history, become songs that facilitate and articulate individual and corporate response.
In this way, the songs become, “individual narratives of encounter”63, and, “vehicles
for making the intimate contact with God”64.
C. ‘A FLIGHT OF SPIRITUAL FANCY’: ENCULTURATED
EXPERIENTALISM.
The charismatic notion of encounter in sung worship becomes most sharply defined
and most fully understood when the views of those critical of the movement are taken
into account.
One of the main objections to arise is that worship has become a means to an end for
charismatics: the ‘end’ being, “some personal sense of having made contact with
God”65. Albrecht calls this: worship with ‘transcendental efficacy’66; worship with
consequence, worship for effect. The consequence looked for: a spiritual or
‘supernatural’67 encounter with God, ‘transcendental ecstasy”68. For Stackhouse, this
leads to the danger of worship becoming a performance by the band and by the
61
See Ward, pp.197-210.
62
Scotland, p.64; cf. Ward, p.203.
63
Ward, p.203.
64
Scotland, p.65.
65
Brown, p.181.
66
Albrecht, p.182.
67
Stackhouse, p.45.
68
Albrecht, pp.185-186.
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congregation to “make God come down”69. As a corollary of this there can be a
pressure on the worship leader to, “make something happen”70 and a danger of
manipulation71 and hype72. For Stackhouse, this is the ‘paradoxical angst’73 inherent in
charismatic worship which creates a, “spirituality of anxiety”74 for its participants and
leaders, and a “mood of intensity”75 and striving for the time of worship. All of which,
he argues, is in sharp contrast to more traditional Christian concepts of assurance and
grace76.
This anxiety is heightened through the over-experiential emphasis of charismatic
worship where presence is discerned by participants having a personal ‘worship
experience’77. Stackhouse writes disparagingly of this ‘community of feeling’ whose
worship is often a, “flight of spiritual fancy”78 and a, “striving after sentimental
effect”79. He argues that such worship colludes with a form of gnostic dualism where
the world needs to be ‘escaped’ from in order to access and encounter the divine,
leading to a, “hyper-spiritual view of Christian existence”80.
Moreover, Stackhouse, Ward and Steven all suggest to various degrees that
charismatic worship is predominantly best understood as a product of the process of
enculturation by evangelicals since the cultural revolution of the 1960’s81. In being so

69
Stackhouse, p.63; cf. Scotland, p.76.
70
Stackhouse, p.48.
71
Ibid, p.47.
72
Scotland, pp.75-6.
73
Stackhouse, p.129.
74
Ibid, p.59.
75
Stackhouse, p.48.
76
Ibid.
77
See Stackhouse, p.128.
78
Ibid.
79
Ibid, p.58.
80
Ibid, p.127.
81
For more broader background on this argument see: D.W.Bebbington, Evangelicalism in
DRAKE
concerned to be relevant to its cultural surrounding, the style and form of worship of
the movement is at root a ‘fad’, vulnerable to musical trends82.The ‘cult’83 of worship
is one where worship leaders are seen as pop and rock stars, leading worship in a
secular gig environment84. Such worship can be: “addictive, even idolatrous.”85. The
move to experiential existentialism in worship is ultimately a product of the
Charismatic movement’s blind attempt to “contemporise and contextualise”86,
reflecting the wider cultural mood for immediate experiences 87. Steven even identifies
the appearance of the value of ‘intimacy’ as another example of how:
“contemporary cultural norms have impregnated and shaped charismatic liturgical
practice and piety”88.
D. UNMEDIATED SPIRITUAL IMMEDIACY: THE NON-SACRAMENTAL
CHARGE
“The contemporary style, in which music plays an important part, is now viewed by
many as the only means of grace.” 89.
The criticisms of Charismatic worship become most sharp when they utilise
sacramental language and theology as a lens through which to appraise the notions of
Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s, London: Unwin Hyman, 1989.
82
Ward in Stackhouse, p.47.
83
Ward in Stackhouse, p.47.
84
Steven, pp.97-98.
85
Stackhouse, p.53.
86
Ibid, p.56.
87
Ibid, p.55.
88
Steven, p.134; cf. p.211.
89
M.Horton, In the Face of God: The Dangers and Delights of Spiritual Intimacy, Dallas:
Word, 1996, p.157, cited in Stackhouse, p.48.
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encounter, intimacy and experiencing the presence of God in singing. If the
sacraments are localities of the mediated presence of God (through physical media
such as bread, wine and water), the charge is that Charismatic worship is
‘unmediated’ and at root a search for immediate (felt) spiritual experiences. The
danger of such worship is not only the eroding effect its erroneous informal theology
has upon the church, but also the resulting neglect of the essential practice of the
sacraments themselves90.
Stackhouse and Colwell both criticise this relocation of the presence of ‘grace’ away
from the traditional sacraments and towards congregational singing. For Stackhouse,
the charismatic articulation of encounter as ‘intimacy’91 is central in this theological
error:
“The language of intimacy [is] detached from the message of grace, and unhinged
from the historicity of this message…”92
Too much authority has thus been ceded to sung worship93, and too high an
expectation on its ability to cause transcendental efficacy has been placed on it within
charismatic circles. This belief in having a spiritually immediate experience through
singing has led to, “the weakening of convictions concerning mediated grace”94, and
charismatic worship is, for Stackhouse, by definition, ‘non-sacramental’95.
90
See, for example, Stackhouse, p.139.
91
“Vineyard worship stresses intimacy and immediacy…”, Stackhouse, p.52.
92
Ibid, p.58.
93
Ibid, p.48.
94
Ibid, p.125.
95
Ibid, p.127.
DRAKE
Not only is sung worship detached from the message and traditional means of grace
found in the sacraments, but it has also undermined the theological notion of
mediation – how God, the Creator, relates to His world whilst remaining distinct from
Creation. By claiming that God is immediately accessible in the act of sung worship,
perceived primarily through the felt ‘worship experience’ (‘Intimacy’), Charismatics
have (unknowingly in the most part) rejected any concept of mediation through
physical matter, embracing instead a notion of unmediated presence96.
Colwell describes this prioritising of the immediate and, “individualistic emphasis on
the unmediated”, as a product of Enlightenment thinking97. For Stackhouse and
Colwell, such a “spirituality of the immediate”98 disconnects notions of encounter,
presence and grace from the foundationally incarnational dimension of Christian
theology and spirituality99.
E. CONCLUSION
The assertion of those who practice Charismatic worship is in essence that through
singing alone there is the potential to have an encounter with God’s presence,
articulated most commonly as ‘intimacy’ with Jesus or the Father. The charge brought
against this claim is that it contains an erroneous underlying assumption of
‘unmediated’ access to God, and thus promotes ‘immediate’ escapist experiences of
His presence to the deficit of the more traditional ‘means of grace’: the sacraments.
Moreover, within Anglicanism, the inculcation of charismatic worship marks an
96
Ibid, p.128.
97
Colwell, p.11.
98
Stackhouse, p.139.
99
Stackhouse, pp.127-8.
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unprecedented move away, both theologically and liturgically, from the ‘twin
ministries’ of Word and Sacrament as locations of encounter.
I turn in the next chapter therefore to theologies of the sacraments. I hope to achieve
three objectives therein: firstly, to interrogate the concept of mediation and the
relationship between physical matter and spiritual reality so central to the charges
brought by Colwell, Stackhouse and others; secondly, through doing so, I hope to find
a more suitable and theologically rich vocabulary with which to account for the
encounter and presence claimed in sung worship; and, thirdly, to form a sacramental
framework from which to then interrogate and assess aspects of charismatic worship
described in this chapter.

DRAKE
2. THE SACRAMENTAL TRADITION: ENCOUNTER AND MEDIATION
The belief in the potential of created materials and rituals to act as signs of and/or
vehicles for divine action and presence lies at the core of all theologies of the
sacraments. This high view of that which is physical and its connection to spiritual
reality is based not only on specific scriptural references such as those which institute
Communion, but also foundationally on the doctrines of Creation and Incarnation100.
Having created the world and proclaiming it as good, God has chosen to dwell in his
fullness within a human being: Jesus Christ101. In opposition to docetism and in stark
contrast to any gnostic dualistic notion of escaping materiality in order to gain
spirituality, theologies of the sacraments thus espouse the centrality of physical
elements, the particulars of Creation, for facilitating encounter with God’s presence.
At this basic level, spiritual reality is participated in by partaking in physical realities:
the eating of bread for example, drinking of wine or submersion in the waters of
baptism.
How these two realities relate, and what the precise nature of the divine spiritual
reality encountered is, have been a cause for much debate over centuries of
theological discussion and polemic. Due to limits of space I will focus especially on
the issues pertinent to our discussion, drawing in particular on two key influences in
this field: Aquinas and Calvin.
100
For discussion of this see for example, Colwell p.56f and A.Loades & D.Brown (eds.),
Christ: The Sacramental Word: Incarnation, Sacrament and Poetry, London: SPCK, 1996,
p.27.
101
The incarnational focus in sacramental thinking has led to a move particularly in the 20th
Century towards seeing Christ himself as the original and ultimate ‘sacrament of God’ or
‘primordial sacrament’. See for example, O.P.Schillebeeckx, Christ the Sacrament of
Encounter with God, Maryland: Sheed & Ward, 1963.
DRAKE
A. THE ROLE OF THE SIGN: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SYMBOL
AND REALITY
A definition of the sacraments attributed to Augustine is that the physical elements act
as a visible sign of invisible grace102. Similarly, Thomas Cranmer defined a sacrament
in the 1662 book of Common Prayer as: “the outward and visible sign of an inward
and spiritual grace”103. Through partaking in the bread and wine or entering the
waters of baptism, the inner encounter with ‘invisible grace’ – the love of God in
Christ, the forgiveness of sins - is made visible through and in the physical
sacramental event. At root, a sacrament is therefore a sign: the unseen seen, the
‘visible’ physical displaying the ‘invisible’ spiritual.
However, does the sign have an efficacy in and of itself? That is to say, do the bread
and the wine not just act as an outward sign of an inner experience, but rather effect
that which they signify? What is the relationship between the sacramental ‘media’
(particulars of creation) and the sacramental ‘reality’ (grace)?
Building on Augustine’s work, and that of Peter Lombard104, Thomas Aquinas argued
that the baptismal waters actually cause grace (the outward sign effecting that which it
signifies: the inner reality of a cleansed heart):
“Augustine says…that the baptismal water ‘touches the body and cleanses the heart’.
But the heart is not cleansed save through grace. Therefore it causes grace: and for
like reason so do the other sacraments of the Church.”105

102
R.Thompson, The Sacraments, London: SCM Press, 2006, p.46.
103
Catechism of the Book of Common Prayer (1662).
104
Lombard, Sentences 4.1.2, quoted in Thompson, p.47: “[a sacrament is] a sign of God’s
grace…an image of invisible grace that…bears its likeness and exists as its cause”.
105
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, (ST) III 62 1.
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In contrast, the Swiss Reformer, Ulrich Zwingli, saw a sacramental sign as having no
efficacy, thus the Lord’s Supper being best understood as a memorial event. Most
theologians however would agree to the notion of a general concept of divine
causality working through human signs, as Calvin’s definitions of the sacraments, for
example, shows:
“[a sacrament is] an outward sign by which the Lord seals on our consciences the
promises of his good will toward us in order to sustain the weakness of our
faith…”106
In order to precisely articulate the deeper questions of how such physical symbols
effect the spiritual reality they signify a more precise language is needed however.
How does form (the physical sacramental media) relate to content (the spiritual or
‘sacramental’ reality: ‘grace’); or more acutely, in the case of Communion, how
ontologically is Christ’s body linked to the bread?
Aquinas provides us with just such a language by distinguishing between the
‘instrumental’ causes of grace and the ‘efficient’ causes107. Following on from
Augustine, Aquinas emphasised God’s action in the sacrament rather than, for
example, any action of a priest108. He therefore differentiated between the physicality
of the sacrament itself as the instrumental cause of grace, and God alone as the
106
J.Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion (trans. F.R.Battle), London: Continuum, 1997, IV
xiv 1.
107
Colwell, p.7f.
108
What Augustine called ex opere operantis – the sacrament working by the work of the
minister.
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efficient or ‘first’ cause of grace109.
Although this notion of ‘instrumental’, in a contemporary context, seems to be too
strong an articulation to match the central thrust of what Aquinas was trying to say110,
it is formative for my study in its suggestion that matter matters. This is what,
generously interpreted111, Augustine was also inferring with his vocabulary of ‘ex
opere operato’ – the bread and wine of communion, or the waters of baptism, being
God ordained symbols, fashioned and physically honed to the task of the mediation of
God’s grace through them.
The language of efficiency and instrumentality thus suggests that although God is the
‘first’ and efficient cause of grace (the origin of agency), the physicality of the
sacrament itself, and therefore its potentiality to act as a sign, participates in this
divine causality, and to some extent is crucial to the successful mediation of, or
perhaps better participation in the spiritual reality behind the sacrament.
Before expanding this idea further, it is important to discuss the nature of this
‘sacramental reality’ and the emphasis placed by the Reformers on the word, faith and
the Spirit in facilitating encounter.
B. THE RELATIONAL NATURE OF THE SACRAMENTAL ENCOUNTER
The danger inherent in Aquinas’ and the Scholastic use of the term ‘grace’ to describe
109
Colwell, p.8.
110
See ST III 62 1; cf. 64 1-2 for his sustained emphasis on the role of the ‘principal agent’.
111
See Colwell, p.9 for a more critical appraisal.
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the nature of the sacramental encounter, was a depersonalisation of the presence and
action of the three-personed Godhead central to Christian faith and witness. As
contemporary theologian, John Macquarrie argues:
“’grace’ is not some subtle substance but is God’s ‘presence and his very self’ in his
outreach towards us”.112
This understanding of the sacramental encounter as dynamic and relational was
central to the theology of the Reformers. In particular, John Calvin.
For Calvin, the sacrament of communion offered an objective gift: the grace of God in
the gift of Christ.113 By partaking in the bread and the wine of the Lord’s Supper,
Christ, “pours his life into us, as if penetrating into our bones and marrow”114.
Participating in the sacrament is thus part of the believer’s onward journey of
relationship with Christ, of deeper union with him. The ‘sacramental reality’ is
therefore the saving reality of Christ, and this saving reality is based foundationally
on the once-for-all sacrifice on the Cross. Herein, for Calvin, lies the absolute efficacy
of the sacrament; the role of the Eucharist and all sacramental media thus being to
make the saving reality of the cross, “effective for us”, by making, “personal contact
with us”115.
One of the principle legacies of the Reformers was thus an emphasis on the relational
and personal dynamic to sacramental encounter. Their other key insight, to which I
112
J.Macquarrie, A Guide to the Sacraments, London: SCM Press, 1997, p.18.
113
C.J.Cocksworth, Evangelical Eucharistic Thought in the Church of England, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1993, p.192.
114
Institutes IV xvii 10.
115
See Cocksworth, p.27.
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now turn, was the importance of God’s written word, personal faith, and the action of
the Holy Spirit in encountering Christ’s saving reality through the physical elements.
C. THE ROLE OF THE WORD, FAITH AND THE SPIRIT IN ENCOUNTER
The Reformers reacted against their Catholic heritage by emphasising the role of the
written word of God in giving meaning to and shaping the sacramental act. In order to
limit the number of sacraments down from Lombard’s seven, they defined sacrament
as the fulfilment of scriptural promise116. For Luther, the sacraments were about
believing in these promises revealed in the Word of God 117. Similarly for Calvin, the
prior presence of the word of God provided the context by which mere element
becomes ‘sacrament’, and mere symbol becomes a means of participating in the very
reality signified:
“[A] sacrament is never without a preceding promise but is joined to it as a sort of
appendix, with the purpose of confirming and sealing the promise itself, and of
making it more evident to us and in a sense ratifying it.”118
Furthermore, the involvement of the word of God in sacramental encounter was also
in order to release personal faith from partakers in the sacrament, for:
“Christ was given to us by God’s generosity to be grasped and possessed by us in
116
See pp.18f for discussion of promise in J.F.White, The Sacraments in Protestant Practice
and Faith, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1999.
117
See The Augsburg Confession of 1530 (cited in White, p.19. Cf: The Babylonian
Captivity, p.124 (White, p.18): “It has seemed proper to restrict the name of sacrament to
those promises which have signs attached to them.”
118
Institutes IV xiv 3.
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faith”119
Calvin in particular emphasised the necessity to have such faith in order to fully
engage with the person and action of the Holy Spirit, who he saw as the true
‘instrumental agency’ or efficacy of the Sacrament:
“[Christ] testifies and seals in the Supper, not by presenting a vain and empty sign,
but by manifesting there the effectiveness of his Spirit to fulfil what he promises.”120
He believed that the ‘energy of operation’ in the sacrament was the action of the
Spirit, even causing faith in the believer in the first place. Without the Spirit, the
sacrament is ineffective:
“…If the Spirit be lacking, the sacraments can accomplish nothing more in our minds
than the splendour of the sun shining upon blind eyes, or a voice sounding in deaf
ears”.121
Thus, for Calvin, the physical elements are only ever ‘instruments’ not ‘instrumental’
in the action of the Sacrament122.
Calvin’s emphasis on the agency of the Spirit in the giving of Christ through the
physical elements, re-addressed the balance between the influence of
Creation/Incarnation doctrines and Ascension/Pentecost traditions in sacramental
119
Institutes III xi 1.
120
Institutes IV xvii 10.
121
Institutes IV xiv 9.
122
Institutes IV xiv 9; See p.56 Thompson for discussion.
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theology123. Furthermore, his emphasis on the role of the Spirit in mediating encounter
with the risen Christ marked the re-integration of a more Trinitarian notion of the
work of the sacraments. It is to this notion we now finally turn in order to complete
our discussion on the sacraments, primarily drawing on the discussions of theologies
of mediation by Colin Gunton124.
D. A THEOLOGY OF MEDIATION: THE ECONOMIC TRINITY
“If God is God, and not the world, and if we are still to know him, then some form of
mediation…is required.”125
For Gunton, a correct notion of mediation is essential for all theology 126 as to
theologically allow any kind of unmediated access to God would collapse God into
the world and undermine His sovereign freedom. Building on Barth’s work, Gunton
argues for a theology of mediation that not only preserves God’s freedom in his
revelation (self-communication), but also maintains Creation’s distinctness and
dependence upon its Creator127. Essentially, in order for God’s presence and action to
encounter and effect anything other than Himself, Gunton suggests it must be mediate
in nature. Standing in the tradition of Irenaeus, Calvin and Barth, he argues for a
theology of mediation that must be thoroughly Christological, utterly Trinitarian, and
123
In Communion therefore, Calvin held that Christ’s body was ‘in heaven’, thus his presence
in the sacrament must be a spiritual presence (by the Holy Spirit’s action) not a literal
physical presence. See Thompson, p.145 for more.
124
Father, Son & Holy Spirit, London: T &T Clark, 2003, pp.164-180. As a disciple of
Gunton, Colwell too refers to his work on mediation as an aid to understanding the underlying
dynamic of the sacraments, although as I have already shown, with very different
conclusions.
125
Gunton, p.164.
126
Ibid.
127
See also Colwell, p.25.
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ultimately eschatological in orientation.
Gunton proposes that mediation should not mean someone or something that is
midway between the Creator and Creation, but is centrally someone who is fully both
– Jesus Christ. The divine Christ’s humanity is therefore the central axiom of
mediation128. Secondly, Jesus, as ascended mediator, releases the Spirit to the world
through His church129. The Spirit, in this regard, mediates in the present the
reconciling power of Jesus’ historical death on the cross (Calvin). Thirdly, Christ is
not only mediator of salvation, and mediator of creation, but also eschatological
mediator130. The goal of such mediation is therefore the reconciliation and ultimate
recapitulation of Creation to its Creator: restored relationship through and in Christ.
The Spirit is thus also best understood as the eschatological spirit: the Lord of life,
eternal life131.
The Son and the Spirit are therefore, in Gunton’s theology of mediation, “God the
Father’s action in the world” – what Irenaeus called, the Father’s ‘two hands’132. This
is the Trinity functioning in its economy – God’s ongoing dynamic relationship to the
world. For Gunton, Creation is not therefore:
“a static and timeless lump of matter, but something with a direction and destiny.”133.
Creation has an eschatological orientation; a telos being brought about by its ongoing
128
Gunton, p.175.
129
Ibid, p.179.
130
Ibid, p.180.
131
Ibid, p.179.
132
Ibid, p.165.
133
Gunton, Christian Faith, p.7.
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relatedness to its Trinitarian Creator.
In Aquinas’ language, the Son and the Spirit as God’s two hands are the ‘agents’ or
efficiency behind the sacramental encounter. This is the root theological dynamic that
should underlie all sacramental theology. It also affirms the Reformers’ insight that
mediation is always personal, relational, as well as eschatological in orientation. To
encounter God is ultimately to participate with the eternal dynamic persons of the
Trinity in their continuing action in the world to reconcile all things in Christ.
E. CONCLUSION
We are now in a position to summarise our theology of the Sacramental encounter
and reality. Based on the doctrines of Creation and Incarnation it is correct to affirm
the goodness and potential of physical matter to act as signs of and/or vehicles for
God’s presence and action in the world134. Matter in this regard thus could be
described as ‘mediating’ spiritual reality and indeed this is the way Colwell and
Stackhouse use the term in their criticisms of charismatic sung worship. For them
sung worship is ‘unmediated’, in that, when compared to sacramental worship, it
lacks the physicality of particulars of creation (the sacramental media) to ‘mediate’
the presence of God to the believer. However, in the light of Gunton’s work on
mediation and Calvin’s emphasis on the agency of the Spirit, I suggest this is at least a
misuse of the term ‘mediation’, and at most, too high a sacramental theology in over-
emphasising Creation and Incarnation at the expense of the realities of Ascension and
Pentecost135.
134
The burning bush, Jesus of Nazareth, and the bread and wine of communion are all
incidences of this basic ‘sacramental’ truth.
135
See for example, Colwell, p.56 where he reduces the ‘core’ of the Christian story to solely
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In strict theological terms, matter doesn’t ‘mediate’ God to the world; it has no
spiritual efficacy or causality in and of itself136. Rather, the Spirit, in relating and
involving the believer in the eschatological and restorative action of the ascended
Son, to the Father’s glory, is the ‘first cause’ of the sacramental work. The Son alone,
forever fully human and yet fully divine is the eternal mediation of our humanity to
God’s divinity, God’s ontology to our economy. Divine causality (in the Son by the
Spirit) works through matter, of course, (although not necessarily exclusively), but
Calvin was right to assert that God doesn’t need matter to relate in the breadth and
depth of His fullness to His world. The material symbol that is a sacrament is not
therefore needed for God to accomplish his purposes137, and is not best described as
‘instrumental’, but rather an ‘instrument’ in the service of God’s dynamic and
relational presence and action, through and in Christ, by the Spirit.
However, as the higher sacramentology of Aquinas (and even Luther) suggest, matter
does matter. Although nothing physical technically ‘mediates’ God, it can be said that
the Spirit, by faith, uses particulars of creation in specific contexts, defined and given
meaning by the pronouncement of the Word (the Reformation insight), to give God’s
grace in the person of Christ to his people. In doing so, the Spirit relates them in the
present to the saving reality of Christ’s once for all death on the cross and the
eschatologically orientated reality of His working to restore all of creation in right
relationship with the Father. Thus, physical matter is only ever indirectly
instrumental: a vehicle or channel of Christ through being caught up in the agency of
the Spirit.
the Incarnation.
136
As Gunton argues, the world is distinct but not independent from God.
137
Calvin, Institutes IV xiv 1.
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In this context, it is correct to say that the unique form of the sacramental media, and
therefore its potentiality to act as a sign, does participate in the divine causality which
relates the believer to the sacramental reality. The elements within a sacrament are
instruments with a particular form which enable them to, “function in such a way as
to become the vehicles for a personal encounter”138.
Perhaps we may say that form participates in content and thus communicates content
in a unique way. Thus the bread and wine of communion don’t provide the
possibility of encountering a unique ontological reality but rather present and relate
participation in the ontological reality of the ascended Christ’s body in a unique and
exclusive way. By eating the bread and drinking the wine, the believer experiences a
unique Eucharistic ‘form’139 of encounter with Christ although the ontological content
of the encounter hasn’t changed from that which can be encountered by the Spirit
outside of the Sacrament140. Another way of saying this is simply that the experience
of encountering Christ in Communion, is unique to the experience of eating bread and
drinking wine at Communion. In Cocksworth’s understanding, a sacrament thus has,
“unique functional force”, providing, “a level of ontological intensity not ordinarily
found in the other moments of Christ’s activity in the Church”141.
In the Calvin (and Cranmer) tradition, this ‘ontological intensity’ is explained by the
elements facilitating faith in the participants142. It could be conjectured therefore that

138
J.Macquarrie in Loads & Brown, p.35; Cf. Cocksworth, p.197: “…the gift of grace is
contextualised in certain ecclesial settings (that is, the content of grace is linked to a form in
which it is made available).”
139
This concept is developed from the work of T.F.Torrance, cited in Cocksworth, p.197.
140
A notion which Calvin and Cranmer held (Cocksworth, pp.26-28).
141
Cocksworth, p.190. For more on this see pp.175-191 especially.
142
See Cocksworth, p.29.
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it is not God who needs matter to mediate himself, but the believer in order to
perceive, receive and respond to the Trinitarian action and presence he/she is invited
into. In which case the physical media of a Sacrament doesn’t contain or control the
economic Trinitarian reality of ‘grace’ in anyway, but in its very physicality, by being
caught up in the work of the Spirit, it does act to ‘direct and focus’143 faith in a unique
and exclusive manner, thereby facilitating the apprehension and embrace of ‘grace’ in
the believer and sustaining their ongoing relationship with Christ.
Having interrogated the notion of mediation and the nature of the sacramental
encounter, I have not only uncovered a vocabulary and conceptual platform for
accounting for and critiquing charismatic worship144, but also established the
importance of the actual physical form of elements of creation for participation in the
sacramental reality of Trinitarian grace. In building a sacramental understanding of
the mediation of God’s presence through corporate song it is now important therefore
to proceed to investigate the contours of such worship’s specific physical form. What
is the ‘sacramental media’ of sung worship?
3. THE SACRAMENTAL MEDIA OF CHARISMATIC SUNG WORSHIP
There has been a move in modern times to broaden the concepts of the sacraments to
argue for a ‘sacramental universe’145, where all matter is a sign of the transcendent
and a potential means of grace146. Whilst the heart of this movement can be
commended (to rediscover a high view of Creation, and re-centralise the doctrine of
143
Cocksworth’s phrase, p.199.
144
See chapter 4.
145
William Temple, Nature, Man and God, London: Macmillan, 1940, p.473.
146
The Anglican poet, George Herbert, Archbishop William Temple, and more recently John
Macquarrie have all argued for this ‘natural theology’ of the sacraments.
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the Incarnation), in the light of a Trinitarian notion of mediation as espoused above,
and the importance of faith, word, and the Spirit in contextualizing the physical
elements and thereby interpreting and actualising their sign, it carries two key
inherent dangers as a theology of encounter: firstly, without specific narrative context
the transcendence encountered cannot be assuredly and reliably Christian (ie,
Trinitarian); and secondly, such ‘sacramentalism’ which sees God in everything
physical becomes increasingly hard to distinguish from idolatry, and the inevitable
collapse of Creator into Creation147. However, the plethora of writings148 on this
broader notion of ‘sacramentality’ can provide very interesting insights into how
matter functions or participates in the sacramental encounter. My purpose in this
chapter is thus to utilise such writings so as to ascertain the contours of the
sacramental media involved in charismatic sung worship. In doing so I hope to
advance a theory of how such form is involved in a uniquely shaped sacramental
encounter similar to that found in the more traditional sacraments.
A. THE SACRAMENTAL MEDIA THAT IS WORDS
Everything that can be said about the form and function of verbal language and
written word can, of course, be said of the sung word. Thus, I want to look here at two
of the key theologians in the field of investigating the sacramental function of the
written and spoken word: Ann Loades and David Brown149. Based primarily on John’s
gospel, they have consistently argued that the role of language within Christian life
147
Gunton, Christian Faith, p.5.
148
See for example, the Eastern Orthodox Alexander Schmemann’s, The World as
Sacrament, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1965.
149
A.Loades & D.Brown (eds.), Christ: The Sacramental Word, London: SPCK, 1996; Cf.
D.Brown, God & Mystery in Words, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
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and worship is more than merely to declare propositional truth but is in some way to
open up or appropriate the very spiritual reality it is used to describe.
In their introduction to ‘The Sacramental Word’ Loades and Brown begin by
challenging the notion that only physical things can function in this way. They argue
that the author of John’s gospel, “by identifying word and flesh demonstrates that
words can equally be conceived in sacramental terms”150. Therefore, it is not only
Christ’s flesh that reveals God to the world but also crucially:
“By calling Christ the Word, John effectively declares the expressiveness, the
language, the poetry of the incarnation equally sacramental.”151
Word and flesh should not therefore be seen as opposites152 (as has often happened in
Protestant debate around the role and weighting of the ‘twin ministries’ of Word and
Sacrament), but rather as ‘intimately related’153:
“The words, like the flesh, function sacramentally in both pointing to a divine reality
beyond themselves, while at the same time mediating, however inadequately,
something of that reality”154
Words function in this way by offering verbal imagery much like materiality offers
physical symbols155. Brown argues that symbols are in fact ‘enacted metaphors’156 and
150
Loades & Brown, p.4; cf. p.155.
151
Ibid, p.4.
152
Ibid, p.5.
153
Ibid.
154
Ibid, p.6.
155
Brown, God and Mystery, p.6; cf. Loades & Brown, p.4.
156
Brown, p.9.
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that experience of the divine comes through metaphor157. Words function in such a
way as to help us more deeply perceive the divine in the world (what we have
identified as the Trinitarian action and presence) and thus ‘enter into’ the sacramental
reality158. All words are:
“…seeking to enable us to participate in something beyond themselves”.159
Words don’t merely function as descriptions or reminders of experiences, they can
also (simultaneously) actually evoke and prescribe experience160.
In an interesting and controversial article from 2002, Stephen Wright, using a similar
approach, argued for the notion of the Bible as a sacrament. He too identified the
function of words to point to the divine reality and their potential power to draw the
hearer out of themselves and into a, “transcendental moment of encounter”161. For
Wright this encounter was about the reception of scripture. Words, particularly when
announced in the context of preaching and received by the hearer, are thus to be seen
as a locus for encounter with God162.
Wright, Loades and Brown all object to the reduction of Scripture in post-
enlightenment Western practice to solely the communication of propositional truth:
“Western practice assumes one meaning in the text, and that when found, constitutes
157
Ibid, pp.17-21.
158
Loades & Brown, pp.3-4.
159
Ibid, p.4.
160
Cf. Thompson, pp.15-16 for discussion of word and action being located together in Old
Testament prophetic tradition.
161
p.83 of S.Wright, “The Bible as Sacrament”, pp.81-87 in Anvil 19:2:2002.
162
Ibid, p.84.
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the end of our quest.”163
This one-dimensional use of the text, mining it for knowledge rather than relating
through it for encounter, has resulted in words being ‘chained down’, ambiguity being
eliminated, and the subsequent loss of the power of the very imagery which allows
them to function as sacramental media164. Words when combined together have the
unique ability to ‘build image upon image’ which in-turn resonate within the human
imagination, ‘opening’ the reality which they describe and inviting participation
within it165.
Moreover, Brown and Loades argue, against Derrida and Deconstructionalism, that it
is the very incompleteness of verbal imagery which signals the persistent presence of
a transcendent reality outside text. They describe this function as a:
“…resistance to closure…the refusal to accept that any word or deed has fully
expressed all that need be said…”.166
Language as combinations of symbols thus has the potential to function as implosions
within the mind, breaking apart any contained, controlled or managed notions of
divine reality, fuelling imagination and renewing an openness to uncontainable
transcendence:
“All imagery forces us beyond containment, and though this may sometimes only
163
Loades & Brown, p.11.
164
Ibid, p.11; cf. Wright, p.87.
165
See Loades & Brown, p.10 for their exquisite description of Christ’s personal presence
being like entering a friend’s room.
166
Ibid, p.12.
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make us move laterally or sideways to think of another earthly matter, the process
has thus begun of thinking analogically…the words induce us to move beyond their
literal meaning towards thinking of a new order of reality.”167
Finally, Stephen Sykes’ article, ‘Ritual and the Sacrament of the Word168’, discusses
the importance of repetition in enabling words to function this way169. Repetition
causes learning and produces and protects memory. In doing so repetition intensifies
the physical impact of words on the mind and body170 affecting a, “sacramental
imprinting upon our consciousness”171. Crucially, Sykes compares this physical
ingestion of reality via language to the encounter which happens in the Eucharist:
“what has been committed to memory is physically within us, and has become as
much part of us as the physical reception of the host at the eucharist. It is indeed the
Word made flesh tabernacling among us.”172
Brown and Loades similarly emphasise the strand of Christian tradition that sees
words themselves as ‘comestible’, to be ‘chewed and digested’173. For:
“Only by such lingering delight over words will their full richness be discovered.”174
In summary, language, whether written, spoken, or sung, has the potential of being a
167
Ibid.
168
pp.157-167 in Loades & Brown.
169
Cf. G.Steiner, Real Presences, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989, p.9.
170
Sykes in Loades & Brown, p.159.
171
Ibid, p.157.
172
Ibid, p.159.
173
V.Cunningham, In the Reading Gaol, Oxford: Blackwell, 1994, p.203. Quoted in Loades
& Brown, p.19.
174
Loades & Brown, p.19.
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sacramental media in and of itself. It has a physicality which impacts the human
person and a form that renders it highly suitable to participation in the Trinitarian
mediation of Christ. It is the very incompleteness of words and their inability to
contain the reality they point to which enables them to have this potential to be used
by the Spirit’s agency to mediate Christ, through whom and in whom alone all things
will one day be described and completed.
B. THE SACRAMENTAL MEDIA THAT IS MUSIC
The study of music and hymnody within theology has often been seen by the academy
as a “Cinderella subject”175. This is perhaps due to the gulf that often exists between
those practicing church music and those involved in the academy176. However, a
contributing factor is the difficulty of actually writing about music; as Elvis Costello
once said, “writing about music is like dancing about architecture”177. Similarly,
George Steiner quotes the famous example of Schumann, upon being asked to explain
a difficult etude, simply playing the piece again178. Articulating the actual effects of
music upon the listener is even more challenging179, and yet an attempt must be made
if music is to be understood as participating in the mediation of God’s Trinitarian
presence in charismatic worship.
175
Brown, God and Mystery, p.73.
176
“In the last hundred years, serious dialogue between theologians and musicians has been
hard to find.” J.Begbie, Resounding Truth, Christian Wisdom in the World of Music,
London: SPCK, 2008, p.13; cf. Hardy and Ford, p.3.
177
Elvis Costello, in Begbie, p.13.
178
Steiner, p.20.
179
“It is indisputable that music is one of the most powerful media humans have at their
disposal; [and yet] how it mediates and what it mediates are notoriously hard to understand
or explain”, Begbie, p.14.
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i) Music’s Power
In his book investigating the presence of transcendent reality in the arts, Steiner
emphasises the sheer power of music to effect the human person:
“music can literally madden…make violence vibrant…console, exalt, heal…There
are andantes which seem to break open the prison house of the ego…[and] scherzos
in which laughter is perfectly real…”180
He describes music as having, “implosive powers within the echo chambers of the
self”181, but what is it about its form that causes these apparent effects?
First of Steiner’s insights is the inherent connection between anthropology and
musicology:
“To ask ‘what is music?’ may well be one way of asking ‘what is man?’”182
Music has a universality that is unique and functions as a means of articulating and
inducing the widest range of human emotions. Not withstanding its culturally
dependent stylistic emphases, music is a truly trans-cultural media. Steiner suggests
that to inhabit music is to fully inhabit our humanity; to engage with music, is to
engage with what lies at the very essence of what it is to be human:
“A world without music is, strictly considered, outside our persuasions of order and
desire. It need not be a dead world in the geological or biological sense. But it would
180
Steiner, p.196
181
Steiner, p.10.
182
Ibid, p.6.
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be explicitly inhuman.”183
Music’s power lies in its ability to resonate with our very humanity, not merely in a
metaphysical or philosophical sense, but in a literal physical sense. From the rhythm
and pitches a baby experience in the womb, through to the constant ‘music of the
body’184 produced by heart rate, speech, and involuntary sounds, music is an
embodied reality, or as Jeremy Begbie puts it, a “bodily business”185.
This ‘materiality’ of music is located both in the instigation and the reception of
music:
“[music] involves the stuff of the earth and human bodies, reeds and vocal cords,
sound waves and eardrums”186
Musical instruments, the human voice and the complexities of the ear are therefore all
involved in the physical media that is music making and hearing 187. Indeed, music can
be received first by the body188, before consciousness or will are even engaged:
“Music is at once cerebral in the highest degree…and it is at the same time somatic,
carnal and a searching out of resonances in our bodies at levels deeper than will or
consciousness”189
183
Ibid, p.196.
184
T.DeNora, After Adorno: Rethinking Music Sociology, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2003, p.101. Cited in Begbie, p.47.
185
Begbie, p.47: “Our physical, physiological, and neurological makeup shapes the making
and hearing of sound to a high degree.”
186
Ibid, p.306.
187
Ibid, pp.212, 306, 307.
188
Ibid, p.47.
189
Steiner, p. 217.
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In turn however, this physical intake of music can effect the whole being, intellect and
emotion190.
The totality of this effect of music upon the human being and the inability of the
human mind to fully identify, conceptualise and explain the impact 191, allows music
an ability to point outside of human experience, to direct attention to the transcendent,
to the ‘other’192. In this regard, in its potential supra-rationality, music encourages an
apophatic movement towards that which is ‘beyond’ our own humanity:
“music puts our being as men and women in touch with that which transcends the
sayable, which outstrips the analysable”193.
ii) Music’s Form
Begbie’s investigations into the actual mechanics of why music’s form is able to have
this effect, have drawn up a number of key reflections194. Firstly, he identifies the
meaning-making ability of ‘sonic-simultaneity’ in music: the ability of two notes (or
more) to be heard together and yet remain distinct195:
“Musical notes come to have meaning first and foremost not because of anything they
190
See Begbie, pp.298ff.
191
See Steiner, p.18: “[Music] takes us to the frontiers between conceptualization of a
rational-logical sort and other modes of internal experience”
192
See Steiner, p.226.
193
Ibid, p.218.
194
For more fuller discussion see Chs.9 and 10 of Begbie, Resounding Truth. I will highlight
two here as examples.
195
See J.Begbie, Music, Mystery and Sacrament, in G.Rowell & C.Hall (eds.), The Gestures
of God, London: Continuum, 2004, p.182. Cf. Begbie, Resounding Truth, pp.226-236.
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might direct our attention to but because of their relation to one another.”196
This phenomenon lies at the heart of all harmony and has been used by composers for
centuries to deliberately create different impressions on the listener. Begbie gives the
example of Bach197 and in particular his use of suspended dissonances (a melody line
staying the same whilst its harmony alters beneath it) to create a feeling of unresolved
tension. The interval of an augmented fourth is another example of such ‘sonic-
simultaneity’ – being regarded throughout history as being able to evoke a negative,
tense and ominous mood198. Moreover, keys of music have been traditionally
associated by composers with the emotional landscape they articulate: minor keys
conveying sadness and negative emotions; major keys conveying joy and positive
feelings. Messages of the deepest, primal nature, and initially sub-rational are thus
communicated to human beings when the sounds created by the combination of notes
alone (without words) are received in the human body. Music is bestowed with the
potentiality to create and convey meaning right at its harmonic heart.
Secondly, Begbie draws attention to the inherent directional nature of music199. This
teleological orientation is due to the oscillation between tension and resolution within
pieces which communicate a sense of direction, purpose and the goal of ultimate
completeness. Begbie identifies the metre (time signatures) of music as one of the
mediums of this message with it’s constant opening and closing of beats200:
196
Begbie, Resounding Truth, p.57.
197
Begbie, Music, Mystery and Sacrament, pp.182-184.
198
Ibid, p.183.
199
He is writing from within the Western musical tradition in particular. Ibid, pp.184-186, cf.
Resounding Truth, p.277f.
200
Ibid, p.185.
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“Every return [of a sound wave generated by a beat] closes and opens, completes and
extends, resolves and intensifies.”201
In his book, ‘Theology, Music and Time’, he reads this multi-levelled movement back
and forth within metre theologically, comparing it to biblical patterns of promise and
fulfilment, exile and restoration, the ‘now’ and the ‘not yet’202.
These are but two of the ways music’s form – the physical sound waves it is – affect
human beings. Firstly by acting on an elemental ‘pre-conscious’ level, generating
physical and emotional reactions (what we may call ‘visceral response’); before
secondarily acting at a conscious level, generating intellectual and holistic responses
(‘aesthetic recognition’). Melody, harmony, rhythm, key, metre, as well as the nature
of the sound generated by the physical materials of each instrument – singularly and
when combined – all contribute to music’s capacity to physically enter and work
within the complex human system designed to receive, perceive and experience
reality.
iii) The Problem of Meaning
Music is thus inescapably involved with physicality at every level, both inception and
reception, and resonates with the very fabric of our humanity whilst orientating us
towards that which is beyond and more than us. This has led commentators such as
Steiner and Albert Blackwell203 to celebrate the ‘sacramental potential’ of music – its
innate ability to connect humans to the transcendent divine reality. For Steiner, music
201
Ibid.
202
Chapters 2 and 4 of J.Begbie, Theology, Music and Time, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2000.
203
A.Blackwell, The Sacred in Music, Cambridge: Lutterworth, 1999.
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is the “naming of life…beyond any theological specificity”204 and, “the unwritten
theology of those who lack or reject any formal creed”205. Whilst for Blackwell,
music even has ‘redemptive possibilities’, to: “help to save a fallen world”206.
Such a high view of music is problematic for two key reasons when held against the
lens of our theology of the sacraments and mediation207. Firstly, music is in danger of
being equated with a ‘first cause’ efficiency in mediating encounter with the divine
reality: instruments are in danger of becoming ‘instrumental’ and the agency of the
Spirit sidelined. If God and creation are to remain distinct and if mediation is
ultimately best understood as the action of the Trinity in its economy, then music
should be viewed, not as matter having the potential to mediate the divine, but as
matter having the particular potential of being taken up in the agency of the Spirit. In
this regard Begbie is right to warn of the dangers of music becoming: “a new
theological master, supposedly giving us supreme access to God.”208.
Secondly, as the Reformers would remind us, without context, particularly the
presence in some form of the Word (the narrative of God’s salvific action in Jesus),
such ‘encounter’ with transcendence remains unspecified and general in nature. This
is the danger of music functioning ‘sacramentally’ but not Christologically209. Music
without the presence of the narrative that is God’s story in some form ultimately lacks
definition and functional form as ‘sacramental media’210. The ‘divine’ or

204
Steiner, p.217.
205
Ibid, p.218.
206
Blackwell, p.159.
207
See Begbie, Music, Mystery and Sacrament, pp.175f for criticism of Blackwell in
particular.
208
209
Begbie, Music, Mystery and Sacrament, p.177.
210
John Drane writes of the need to “reconnect sacrament and story in order to establish
meaningful connections” p.50 in Rowell & Hall.
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‘transcendent’ may be felt to be encountered through experiencing the sound waves of
music but without the interpretive framework provided by the Christian narrative,
such experience crucially lacks Trinitarian and therefore Christian content.
C. THE SACRAMENTAL MEDIA THAT IS WORDS & MUSIC: ‘SONG’
Separately, words and music thus both have specific form that enables each to
participate and present divine presence and action to human beings. However, it is
together as ‘song’ that their capacity to be used by the agency of the Spirit to relate us
to the Son and sustain our relationship with the Father, is realised most fully and
uniquely. By both cooperation and juxtaposition, their interaction can generate,
“possibilities greater than the sum of each” 211.
By working together, they complement each other’s meanings and thus heighten the
experience of the transcendence pointed to by each separately. David Brown gives
two examples of this unity from two hymns:- i) ‘Love Unknown’ 212 - particularly the
moving change from Eb to Db chords at: ’Then ‘Crucify!’ was all their breath’”213; ii)
‘Dear Lord and Father of Mankind’214 where the melody fits the mood of the words
by, “not only suggesting a soothing calm but helping to create it”.215
In contrast, by juxtaposing words and music, new form and meaning can be
generated. Melodies or rhythms can act as new contexts for the interpretation of
lyrics, and vice versa. This complex interplay of the two can build up the layers of
211
212
John Ireland’s tune.
213
Brown, God & Mystery, p.100.
214
Hubert Parry’s melody.
215
Brown, p.101.
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rich imagery, commented on by Loades and Brown, which so fuel the imagination
and direct it to the ‘other’. Moreover, music can also provide a cohesion to what
would be otherwise disparate verbal images or metaphors. By being set within the
same piece of music, words and concepts can be unified, enabling richer and richer
layers of meaning and creative play upon imagination. Hardy and Ford summarise
this interaction of words and music well:
“[music] takes them [words] up into a transformed, heightened expression, yet
without at all taking away their ordinary meaning. Language itself is transcended
and its delights and power are intensified.”216
Songs thus have the ability to impact as a Sacramental media the whole person:
physically, emotionally and intellectually. Whereas the pathway of influence for
words is intellect, emotion and then body; the pathway of music’s influence is
reversed: body, emotion, intellect. Separately their impact on the human person is
powerful; together it is total. In this sense, we are most fully alive when we sing, our
humanity resonating with the sound of song.
Furthermore, whilst words can give crucial and necessary narrative context for
music’s capacity to participate in the mediation of a Trinitarian encounter, music acts
simultaneously to dramatise217 and enable participation in that very narrative.218.
Music actualises this narrative in the present to the believer (what Wright would
216
Hardy and Ford, p.15.
217
David Brown calls this ‘enactment’. See ch.6 of God & Mystery.
218
Stephen Wright is correct to argue that the narrative word of God doesn’t need to
necessarily be in the foreground for it to be present. It can be present through contemporizing
or paraphrasing of biblical texts in the lyrics of songs, through film, artwork, photography,
architecture, or within the believers themselves as memory and experience.
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identify as the ‘reception of Scripture’). Moreover, by the act of singing, the believer
participates in the present divine reality of God’s saving work in Christ by stepping
anew into His narrative. Music when combined with words can thus act to perform
the past historical reality of the work of the economic trinity whilst simultaneously
facilitating participation in the present reality of their presence and action. Music with
words, understood as a sacramental media: “recalls, renews [and] initiates
experience”219.
Moreover, songs aid the repetition that enables words to have a physical impact on
our being through initiating and sustaining memory and provoking creative
engagement with texts. In turn, the repetitive singing of simple combinations of words
can influence the intensity of the music and its meaning, changing rhythms,
encouraging harmonies, affecting praise:
“Repetition at time fosters exuberant praise, while at others it can encourage a
meditative, almost mystic contemplation.”220
Finally, song can act to “re-shape [and] re-configure our temporal co-ordinates”221.
Rowan Williams’ understanding of the action of the sacraments is one of dislocation
and relocation, of boundary marking and the reordering of society, the forging of new
identity and relations222. The sacraments re-enact the narrative of Christ’s saving
reality and upside-down Kingdom, and thus, participating in them is a subversive act
219
Brown, p.76.
220
Ibid, p.77.
221
222
R.Williams, ‘Sacraments of the New Society’ in Loades & Brown, pp.89-102. Cf. On
Christian Theology, p.201.
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to the surrounding culture223. The sacraments thus draw people out of one way of life
and view of reality and lead them into another. Participation in song can have the
same personal and social function, revealing the poverty of our present reality and
strivings to secure our identity in this world, whilst opening our eyes anew to the
reality of God’s Christ-centred Kingdom and action. Brown writes:
“Good hymn writers meet us where we are, in order to draw us into a new
dimension”224
In this context it is interesting that Brueggemann described the famous songs of the
Old Testament as acting in precisely this manner225.
D. CONCLUSIONS
In summary, the marriage of music and words in song and singing creates a distinct
sacramental media that has high potentiality to act as a material signifier caught up in
the agency of the Spirit. Music explores the ‘pointing beyond’ of words and words
explore the ‘pointing beyond’ of music. Going deeper into articulating this effect is
difficult as we reach the limits of conceptualization and language, however, Hardy
and Ford offer some very interesting suggestions in their discussion of ‘praise’:
“Perhaps the central effect of praise…is that of opening…praise opens ‘space’ for
223
See, for example the story of Estonia’s subversive singing,
www.thesingingrevolution.com: “Most people don’t think about singing when they think
about revolution. But song was the weapon of choice when Estonians sought to free
themselves from decades of Soviet occupation.” Accessed on 27.08.08
224
Brown, p.81.
225
The Psalms as leading us from orientation to disorientation to reorientation: The Message
of the Psalms, Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1984.
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the other to be himself”226
Song, as the primary means of corporate united praise, can perhaps be seen as an
instrument of the Spirit to open space for God to be most fully himself to his Creation
and creation to be most fully itself in orienting and relating itself back to Him. This is
what Hardy and Ford call the ‘expanding economy of praise’227:
“God’s…economy of praise…opens ‘space’ for us, in our relations with ourselves
and others, to expand to our true selves…selves given, not selves possessed.”228
Similar to Orthodox liturgies, sung worship thus facilitates the presentation of God to
the world, but also the world back to God. There is a self-offering from both parties in
this sacramental movement. By singing we are therefore placing our full selves into
the dynamic expansive move of the Trinity to restore all things through Christ to their
original design. This divine dynamic relational space is made real by the Spirit
through the human act of corporate song.
226
Hardy & Ford, p.159.
227
Ibid, p.166.
228
Ibid, p.164.
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4. TOWARDS A SACRAMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF CHARISMATIC

SUNG WORSHIP: BEGINNING THE DISCUSSION
Before critiquing aspects of charismatic worship through the lens of the sacramental
theology I have been describing, it is important to pause and summarise the shape of
the lens so far. I have suggested that sacramental theology at heart is about how God
relates to the world whilst remaining distinct and protecting the ‘otherness’ of the
other. A theology of the sacraments is therefore always a theology of mediation.
Building on Calvin and Gunton in particular, I have argued that the term mediation is
best employed to describe the agency of the Spirit alone in relating us to the Son and
the presence and action of the economic Trinity. In a sacrament, Christ is
ontologically present not by matter, but by the Holy Spirit. However, the sacramental
tradition emphasises the importance of anchoring theologies of encounter and
presence firmly in the doctrines of Creation and Incarnation. Matter matters. Although
physical materials (elements) are not instrumental in mediating God’s presence, there
is a certain giveness to the form and symbolic capabilities of particular matter that
renders it especially influential in the human perception, reception and participation in
divine reality. Signs do indeed affect the reality they signify but only by the efficiency
of the Spirit. The distinctive physicality of different media enables unique forms of
encountering the sacramental reality that is the presence and action of the economic
trinity centred on the ontological reality of the risen ascended Christ. There is only
one ontological divine reality, encountered equally through different particular forms.
I have argued, against the assumptions of Colwell and Stackhouse, that charismatic
sung worship has a very real materiality at its core. From inception to reception,
music making to music hearing, sound is a physical media which affects the whole
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human person. Moreover the activity of singing is a thoroughly embodied action
which carries within it the other crucial material content: words. Words and music
combine to fuel the imagination, create memory, evoke experience, and aid the
performance, reception and inhabitation of God’s narrative (His word), opening up a
space for the self-giving of God to his creation and creation’s re-orientation of
relation back to God in Christ. This physical ingestion of divine Christ-centred reality
via song (language and music) is comparable to the encounter via bread and wine in
the Eucharist.
Human songs (music and words) are therefore material instruments or elements which
participate in the content that is God’s (mediated) song (the agency of the Spirit
through the Son to the Father bringing all of Creation in re-aligned relationship to its
Creator). Even the most cursory biblical overview displays the permissibility of this
notion229. From the stars singing together at the world’s inception, Mary’s song at the
birth of Emmanuel, to the eschatological new song that shall be in our mouths; from
Moses and Miriam’s exodus song, through the ‘songbook of the Temple’, to the final
creation choir in Revelation 4-5, music and song are clearly central to the dialogue
between God and Creation230. When the believer sings, they are physically caught up
in this dynamic presence of God’s Trinitarian action in the world. This is ‘encounter’:
entering into the physical engagement with music and song (the ‘sacramental media’),
and thus, by the Spirit, through faith, participating in the creative, redemptive,
eschatologically orientated, recapitulation movement of the ascended Christ to the
229
Space permits a detailed survey of biblical song but see for example, Begbie, Resounding
Truth, pp.59-74.
230
See for example, J.Kleinig’s study of the role of sung worship in Chronicles, The Lord’s
Song: The Basis, Function, and Significance of Choral Music in Chronicles, Sheffield: JSOT
Press, 1993:“Just as the choir offered praise for the congregation, so the congregation with
its responses offered praise for all people and the whole universe.” p.96.
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Father’s glory (the ‘sacramental reality’).
If this is the beginning of a ‘sacramental understanding’ of sung worship, what are the
implications of such an account? When viewed through this lens what can be affirmed
and what should be challenged about charismatic sung worship?
A. CHALLENGES
i) Over-emphasis on Encounter as ‘Intimacy’
This sacramental articulation of God’s presence in sung worship provides a much
wider, richer and deeper account than the ‘intimacy’ of the Charismatic claim. The
conceptualization of the goal of worship as intimacy along with the use of Old
Testament Temple imagery, implies a one-directional movement of the worshipper
towards God. Such a notion is vulnerable to being interpreted as a consumerist,
experience-seeking, gnostic escapism, as shown by the criticisms from Colwell and
Stackhouse. In contrast, the sacramental insight of Trinitarian mediation suggests a
two-way movement in worship. By participating in the action and presence of the
economic trinity, the singing believer is entering a dynamic, on-going, outward
movement of God to and in his Creation. The telos of sung worship is thus by nature
missional. However, as the believer is caught up in the breath of the Spirit out towards
the world, so too they are brought back to surrender under the head of all things –
Christ, to the glory of the Father. There is thus no place of ‘arrival’ in sung worship as
implied by Old Testament geographical sacred space imagery, but rather a
relationship to be enjoyed by participating in the Trinitarian movement of God. Sung
worship is thus not so much about going ‘into’ God but going out with Him. We share
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in the perichoretic and relational intimacy of the Trinity as a corollary of singing their
outward song.
ii) Articulation: Informal and Formal Theology
It could be said that, like Schumann, Charismatic musicians have had a tendency to
just play the same thing again, longer and louder, rather than stop and explain what
they are doing and why. The lens of sacramental theology gives Charismatic
leadership and musicians a much needed language and conceptual world with which
to articulate and formalise the theology they already practice. Moreover, by rooting
charismatic worship in the sacramental tradition, the lexicon provided is truly cross-
denominational and encourages inter-tradition pollination of ideas and constructive
critiques. The language of efficiency, instrumentality, agency, media, mediation and
the economic action and presence of the Trinity, all serve to regulate practice and
fund future discussion. The challenge for those within the movement is to be
disciplined at oscillating between Williams’ ‘informal’ and ‘formal’ theology. Praxis
must impact theory but theory must also be allowed to shape praxis.
Furthermore, although it is valid to articulate the claims of encounter in worship in
experiential and emotive terms (after all, matter matters and God works with and
upon physical bodies), too heavy a dependence on such vocabulary, particularly when
void of more systematic theologies of mediation and presence, is liable to draw the
criticisms fielded by Stackhouse and Colwell of sentimentalism. As I have shown,
charismatic sung worship is a physical engagement of the whole of the person and as
such deserves a theological defence, from within the movement, which comes from
the best of both the heart and the head.

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iii) Sacerdotalism: the ‘Cult’ of the Worship Leader
The protestant sacramental tradition reminds us of the dangers of over-emphasising
the priestly role in the working of the sign to effect that which it signifies. This is a
real danger for the Charismatic tradition with its tendency to make sub-culture
celebrities out of worship leaders and to physically locate the musicians on stage.
Stackhouse’s concern over atmospheres of anxiety and the pressure on the band to
‘make something happen’ can be upheld in this regard, as Loades warns:
“A human self-making of divine presence is a contradiction in terms and a
thoroughly futile endeavour”231.
Much more teaching within the movement is needed to ensure that the instruments
aren’t seen as instrumental and the worship leader mistaken for the ‘first cause’ of
encounter. Calvin’s words on the work of the Spirit in the sacraments need to be
heeded now more than ever:
“[It is] a ministry empty and trifling apart from the action of the Spirit, but charged
with great effect when the Spirit works within and manifests his power.”232
At the same time, the traditional church structures need changing in order to place
much higher value and accountability on its worship leaders if, as I suggest, they are
involved in leading the congregation in a sacramental activity and encounter. Brown
makes this point well:
231
A.Loades, Finding New Sense in the ‘sacramental’, in Rowell & Hall, p.162.
232
Institutes, IV xiv 9.
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“There is no reason why musicians should not be subjected to exactly the same sort
of critique as preachers and liturgists.”
Because most charismatic worship within Anglicanism is lay led, there is a
unresolved and urgent question of how to officially authorize and train such
‘liturgists’:
“Imposing a liturgy is..a very considerable act of power, locating the worshippers in
a particular social space, constructing the horizons of their world, and prompting
them to, or dissuading them from, certain courses of action.”233
The Anglican Charismatic tradition needs to work hard to avoid their doxology and
theology being over-influenced by those who are in danger of becoming a new
‘priestly elite’ – the celebrity songwriters and worship leaders of the movement.
iv) Idolatry: the Matter of Music
Because of music’s innate power to communicate meaning and point to
transcendence, especially when combined with words, there is a constant danger of
worshipping matter rather than the Maker234. This misdirection of praise235 has been a
historical concern about music, but gains a new intensity in today’s world of
packaged charismatic worship (cd’s, dvd’s, televised or streamed conferences,
youtube) which can be accessed on any platform by any individual outside of its
233
S.Sykes, Ritual and the Sacrament of the Word, in Loades & Brown, p.158.
234
It is important to note however, that this a danger shared by all ministries of the
Sacraments and the Word. See, Brown, God & Mystery, p.18; cf. p.217: “Music can hardly
be pronounced inherently more dangerous than the tricks of any clever orator.”
235
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original ecclesiastical context. Singing, as we have seen, is designed to point beyond
and through itself, and yet can so easily become an end in and of itself.
The Charismatic tradition must also be careful not to domesticate the very encounter
which they seek to free by locking the person and action of Christ by the Spirit in the
music or ‘worship block’ much as some streams of Catholicism have done with the
tradition of the veneration of the reserved sacrament.236 A constant emphasis on the
necessity of the Spirit’s agency for mediation to occur would be a corrective to this
danger.
v) Meaning: the Importance of Narrative
Finally, the sacramental lens focuses Charismatics on the importance of not cutting
adrift presence from meaning. As Sykes comments:
“Liturgies…need to stand as close as possible to the narrative and metaphors of
God’s self-revelation”237
The very spontaneity and lay led nature of charismatic worship has the consequence
of inconsistency and unreliability in narrative content and therefore the possibility of
encountering transcendent experience without necessarily Christ-centred,
Trinitarianly framed meaning. Moreover, the simple and repetitive nature of
charismatic songs is not necessarily suited to conveying large amounts of narrative.
This danger is compounded by the very self-sufficiency and de-markation of the
distinct ‘time of worship’. The challenge for Charismatics is not only to work towards
236
See J.Macquarrie, A Guide to the Sacraments, London: SCM Press, 1997, pp.146ff.
237
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discerning what a minimal level of content within the block of songs might be, but
also to more carefully integrate the period of singing with the other components of
their liturgies. Narrative and therefore meaning can thus be communicated by prayers,
readings, sermons and other sacraments without having to be solely located in the
content of the songs. Such an approach suits the multivocal238 nature and particularity
of Scripture.
C. AFFIRMATIONS
i) Emphasis on the Spirit’s Agency
Charismatic sung worship has re-discovered and served to emphasise the agency of
the Spirit in the mediation of God’s presence and action in the world; a pivotal truth,
known for centuries in the Eastern tradition, but lost in the West. It has reinvigorated
the ‘Cappadocian’ Trinitarian tradition by “celebrating the Spirit…as a distinct
divine hypostasis” 239 - ‘worship in spirit’ being one of the key slogans and identity
markers of the movement240. Charismatic sung worship avoids the depersonalisation
of the Spirit inherent in some theologies of the sacraments.
ii) Balance of Verbal and Non-verbal
The distinct form of charismatic ‘blocks’ of worship where songs flow one from
another and incorporate planned and/or spontaneous instrumental musical spaces
provide the potential for a healthy balance of the verbal and non-verbal. Protestantism
has had a natural tendency to be rationalistic in outlook, with its concern to keep
238
Ibid, p.163.
239
Steven, p.180. Cf. C.Gunton, The Promise of Trinitarian Theology, Edinburgh: T&T
Clark, 1991, pp31-57.
240
Scotland, p.63; cf. Steven, pp.177f.
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central the verbal and written word241, and this ‘logocentrism’ has generated
principally cognitive and propositionally based liturgies and worship242. In contrast,
the block of worship facilitates the non-verbal relational encounter to occur. These
‘apophatic’ moments serve to remind of the mystery of encounter, again so central to
the Eastern Sacramental tradition, and are perhaps the silent groans of the Spirit of
Romans 8, or alternatively the silent euphoria of praise: what Schliermacher called the
‘speechless joy’ which “all speech-making [is] too tedious and cold” to express.243
The block of songs with its musical flow thus funds both cataphatic and apophatic
praise, revelation and mystery.
iii) The Value of Repetition
“What matters is the avoidance of meaningless repetition, rather than repetition
itself.”244
Charismatic worship has often been criticised by rationalistic traditions for its
repetitive simple nature. The sacramental reading reverses this charge by affirming
the role such a style of singing has in imprinting memory and funding imagination
through repetition. The use of simple words and music in charismatic songs lends
itself very well to this physical impact of words. In contrast to more traditional
hymnody where verbal content (often propositional in nature) is most often
emphasised with little or no repeating of stanzas or lines, charismatic lyrics often
repeat themselves either by design or as a spontaneous decision of the worship leader

241
See J.Drane, Contemporary Culture and the Reinvention of Sacramental Spirituality, in
Rowell & Hall, pp.37-55.
242
Conservative Evangelicalism within the Anglican Church is a contemporary example of
this.
243
F.Schleiermacher, Christmas Eve: Dialogue on the Incarnation, trans. by T.N.Tice,
Richmond: John Knox, 1967, pp.85-6.
244
DRAKE
as he or she leads ‘in the Spirit’. Similarly, the musical structure of charismatic song,
in its chorus-orientated imitation of secular culture245, naturally repeats whole sections
of lyrics and can linger on them, whereas more traditional hymnody, accompanied as
it is on the organ, progresses inevitably and unstoppably towards climactic end verses.
Repetition should therefore be affirmed in the charismatic tradition because of its
sacramental impact on the whole person – body, heart and mind. Repetitive singing
aids Wright’s ‘reception of scripture’ and enacts and facilitates participation in the
salvation narrative.
iv) Inviting participation, expecting transformation
Through the layout of the liturgical space, the emphasis on corporate singing, the
acceptance of the exercising of spiritual gifts, and the encouragement to express
worship bodily, charismatic worship invites participation. In its balance of incarnation
and ascension doctrines and creation and pentecost emphases, it is a true
‘sacramental’ participation. Furthermore, the length of time spent in worship
encourages an expectation of being transformed rather than merely informed (the
danger for sermon-centric conservative protestant tradition). In line with Cranmers’
emphasis on the change that occurs within the believer at the sacrament, sung worship
puts the believer at the Spirit’s disposal. It dislocates one from one’s own agency, into
His agency. The ‘flow’ of songs, via the mediation of the Spirit, invite an indwelling
of the narrative of the Son and in that indwelling, a transformation. Although the
sermon can dislocate and re-orientate, it can never compete with singing as a tool of
true, two-way self-giving encounter. Charismatic sung worship allows the participants
to give themselves and receive Himself.

245
A typical pattern being: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, chorus.
DRAKE
v) A culturally relevant liturgy
Although the musical genre of charismatic worship music may reflect the wider
fashions of contemporary secular culture, as Brown reminds us, all theology and
praxis is embedded in culture and always has been. Divine presence is encountered in
the midst of human culture. The use of a band, the types of instruments used and their
positioning facing the congregation provide a culturally relevant location for
sacramental encounter. In this regard, such worship could be said to be a re-discovery
of the Eastern Orthodox atmosphere of sacramental encounter but combined with a
commitment to comprehensibility, relevance and accessibility.
vi) Eschatological Sign
Finally by its very nature as a sacramental media, corporate song functions as a
material sign or icon of the end-time reign and rule of Christ: the recapitulation to
which all of Creation is groaning for. Sung worship is a foreshadow of the ultimate
fulfilment of relatedness246 through and in Christ displayed in Revelation 4 and 5.
246
Colwell’s phrase from p.84.
DRAKE
CONCLUSION
In attempting to fulfil the task set before us, it has become clear that this study could
only ever mark the beginning of a much wider and deeper work. As Hardy and Ford
warn:
“[a] systematic exposition of the nature of praise…leads to consideration of the basic
topics of systematic theology…the nature of man, the nature of God, the Trinity,
creation, providence, sin and redemption…”247
In regard to future research I would therefore suggest three principle directions.
Firstly, the need for further theological appraisals, both biblical and systematic, of
music and crucially ‘song’: its form and function as sacramental media. Jeremy
Begbie in systematics and John Kleinig in biblical studies, cut solitary figures in a
marketplace that should be full of life. Secondly, and relatedly, the insights of
psychologists and neuroscientists need to be far more assimilated into theological
appraisals than at present248. Thirdly, the role of the word in sacramental action, as
conceptualised in the broader term ‘narrative’, needs further investigation and
discussion – not only in the context of charismatic hymnody, but also through up-to-
date field study and research enquiring as to what extent and in what mediums
narrative is present in contemporary Anglican Charismatic services. Sadly, what
hinders the advancement of all of these avenues of research is both the limited
number of theologians within the Charismatic Evangelical tradition and the general
disinterest of those theologians outside the tradition in Charismatic liturgy and praxis.
247
Hardy & Ford, p.153.
248
E.g., Oliver Sacks’ Musicophilia, London: Knopf, 2008; and D.Levitin, This is Your Brain
on Music, London: Atlantic Books, 2008, both provide fascinating insights into the latest
research on the physical effects of music on the brain.
DRAKE
Despite the relative brevity of my paper, I hope nevertheless to have contributed to
the investigation of the theological horizons of charismatic worship identified by
Steven in 2003249 and pre-empted by Hardy and Ford 25 years ago. I have shown that
it is not only possible, but also extremely fruitful to formulate an account of
charismatic sung worship through the lens of sacramental understandings of
encounter and mediation. Such a reading offers a much needed conceptual framework
and language from which to begin to build a systematic account of God’s presence in
corporate singing whilst also offering a corrective heuristic from which to assess
aspects of the praxis.
Moreover, by showing how the two ostensibly disparate traditions can be harmonised,
I have questioned the validity of the charge that sung worship is ‘non-sacramental’
and inherently ‘gnostic’. Charismatic worship should be understood as neither a
theological innovation nor a ‘sinister development’, but as a practice securely
anchored in historic sacramental understandings of mediation and encounter. It is the
song of the Father, mediated by the Spirit and the Son, played through Creation,
physically ingested by humans and related back to the Father, through the Son, by the
Spirit. It is immediate in its visceral and aesthetic physical impact upon us, and yet
mediated. It has the potential to be thoroughly incarnational and completely
pentecostal, utterly creational and totally eschatological. Moreover, by functioning to
re-orientate and rightly restore creation’s relatedness to the work and relations of the
economic trinity, it can shape and make its participants more fully alive, fully human.
Instead of mere critical comment, it would be fruitful if more theologians attempted
such creative and playful attempts at articulating its action and systematizing its
249
Steven, p.213.
DRAKE
theology as I have done here.
One last question remains unanswered however: how should a church committed to
the Sacraments, and/or standing in the Protestant word-centred tradition, deal with the
shifted localities of encounter in praxis initiated by the emergence of the charismatic
movement? If, as I have argued, the ministries of sacrament, word and song are all
‘sacramental’ in that they have a particular physical form which participates in and
presents the same ontological divine reality in a unique and heightened or
‘intensified’ way, then each of these three ministries needs to be held in high regard.
Only by trusting and relying upon all three can the churches in England be treasured
as locations of divine encounter rather than merely encountered as locations of
historical treasure. Sung worship needs to be elevated therefore above the theological
reductionism that sees it as merely ‘serving’ the Word or Sacrament (i.e, the high
point of presence in the service) and instead valued in its own right for having the
potential to be an equal locus of encounter. My hope is that the sacramental
understanding of sung worship I have expounded will foster this higher valuation and
respect and confirm the validity of the extensive presence of such worship within the
Anglican church today.
The heart of my thesis is that charismatic sung worship, in its sacramental action, can
significantly contribute to the future missional success of the church by enabling the
sacramental experience of God in new ways, “beyond predictable boundaries”250.
This ‘expanding economy of praise’ not only provides a truly encultured sacramental
liturgy to 21st Century Western iPod society, but can also serve to reinvest the twin
250
Loades, p.172 in Rowell & Hall.
DRAKE
ministries of sacrament and word with meaning for a new generation 251. In return, the
ongoing traditional sacraments such as Eucharist and Baptism can provide much
needed historically rich narrative frameworks within which to locate the practice of
corporate singing.
If the disparate traditions can rise above the polemic, as the reformers failed to fully
do in their time, then it is possible that incubating within the charismatic Anglican
church waiting to be fully discovered is a remarkable combination of ministries,
greater together then the sum of all their parts, which will provide a rich sacramental
diet to engage, sustain and deepen the world’s participation in Christ, by the Spirit, in
praise of the Father.
“The season of singing has come…”
Song of Songs 2.12
251
Hardy and Ford, p.19: “What is offered is not an alternative to word and sacrament but a
new life and power to both of these…”
DRAKE
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Towards A Sacramental Understanding of Charismatic Sung Worship.

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SACRAMENTAL SUNG WORSHIP 1/67 NICK J DRAKE

TOWARDS A SACRAMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF

MA Systematic Theology 2006-2008

DATE: 12.09.08 WORD COUNT: 15, 612.

1. ‘A THEOLOGICAL INNOVATION’: CHARISMATIC SUNG WORSHIP

DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTION

A. ENCOUNTER AND “INTIMACY’: THE TELOS OF SUNG WORSHIP

B. ‘A FLIGHT OF SPIRITUAL FANCY’: ENCULTURED EXPERIENTALISM.

C. UNMEDIATED SPIRITUAL IMMEDIACY: THE NON-SACRAMENTAL

2. THE SACRAMENTAL TRADITION: ENCOUNTER AND MEDIATION

A. THE ROLE OF THE SIGN: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SYMBOL

B. THE RELATIONAL NATURE OF THE SACRAMENTAL ENCOUNTER

C. THE ROLE OF THE WORD, FAITH AND THE SPIRIT IN ENCOUNTER

D. A THEOLOGY OF MEDIATION: THE ECONOMIC TRINITY

3. THE SACRAMENTAL MEDIA OF CHARISMATIC SUNG WORSHIP

A. THE SACRAMENTAL MEDIA THAT IS WORDS

B. THE SACRAMENTAL MEDIA THAT IS MUSIC

C. THE SACRAMENTAL MEDIA THAT IS WORDS AND MUSIC: ‘SONG’

4. TOWARDS A SACRAMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF CHARISMATIC

TOWARDS A SACRAMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF CHARISMATIC

songs is for Charismatics.”1

heart of this singing-centric movement2 is a ‘theological innovation’3, or more

is a ‘sacramental reality’ lying hidden at the heart of Charismatic spirituality.

sacramental tradition, with its articulations of presence and theologies of mediation,

critiquing charismatic worship. By bringing together these two ostensibly disparate

traditions in a ‘sacramental understanding’ of sung worship, I hope to extend the

My proposal that a ‘sacramental theology’ of charismatic sung worship is not only

emphasis on immediate felt experience and implicit underlying denial of the

traditional sacraments by declaring the apparent poverty of charismatic sung worship

in comparison10. I hope to counter this argument by disputing their understanding of

mediation. Firstly through a detailed examination of the relationship between matter

Calvinist emphases and Irenaen roots.

sacraments within the Protestant denominations comes within a wider context of an

emerging realization of the lack of presence and encounter in church gatherings:

“[people] may expect to receive a welcome, the warmth of friendship…children’s

theologically unaware and undiscerning expect something more profound from or

through a church: they expect to be encountered by God.”11

Expressions of Church’12 movement within the Church of England also bemoans

and what does not”15.

In progressing through the paper my methodology will be to firstly describe and

James Steven’s “Worship in the Spirit: Charismatic Worship in the Church of

questions of mediation and notions of encounter I wish to interrogate in later sections.

to my later sacramental reading of its components in chapters 3 and 4.

sacramental theology with particular reference to the seminal influences of Aquinas

question of the nature of divine presence or ‘grace’.

described in chapters 1 and 2, delivering the beginnings of a systematic account for

the mediation of God’s presence through corporate singing. In chapter 3, by utilising

sacramental understanding of charismatic worship: What does this reading affirm

and the traditional sacraments should relate.

therefore be on Charismatic worship within the Church of England. Due to limits of

work can reinvigorate the theological study of evangelical-charismatic theology and

Christ by the Spirit, to meet His people.

1. ‘A THEOLOGICAL INNOVATION’: CHARISMATIC SUNG WORSHIP

A. DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTION

more significantly in the sphere of worship than elsewhere…”

charismatic worship within Anglicanism has been consolidated by and embodied in

a consensus of core ‘ritual elements’24 found in Charismatic worship. I will outline

Scotland25, Steven26, and Ward27 in particular.

charismatic use of congregational singing, whereby songs or hymns are generally

sung singularly within the liturgy of a service34.

The essential element in facilitating a ‘block of worship’ is the ‘worship leader’35;

and lead musical interludes; (vi) encourage congregational participation. Besides

creating a sense of unpredictability and spontaneity within the ‘block’ of worship.