Praise vs. Worship

Some will no doubt accuse me of making some pretty sweeping statements in the last post, statements that bear support for which I offered little. True enough, so I offer support now.

First: what is a praise chorus? A praise chorus is any Christian song designed for use during a church service, and which is centered around a repetitive phrase or group of phrases (both musical and lyrical) that can be easily learned and remembered. Most church music has assumed this character, presumably to facilitate greater congregational participation, and because knowledge of musical forms has deteriorated to the point where average congregants are unable to follow the frequently complex and difficult melodies and harmonies of traditional hymns.

Second: why are such songs inherently emotional? It isn't because of their lyrics (though those are usually of similar ilk), nor is it dependent on the instruments used. Praise choruses are inherently emotional because they're designed not to elevate the intellect and thereby the emotions, but rather specifically to excite the emotions. If this sounds like a tautology, bear with me.

Complex musical forms require intellectual engagement not only if one hopes to understand them, but also if one hopes to be genuinely affected by them. Praise choruses are deliberately simple in order to appeal to the broadest audience (thereby estranging a large contingent who prefer artistically valid pieces!), and thereby eschew the intellectual aspect of their composition. It's hard to sing a complex melody line, but recognizable chords played in a repetitive progression are relatively simple to sing and can be used over and over with all kinds of lyrics.

It's essential at this point to introduce the idea of the effect lyrics have over a song. In order to keep choruses singable, songwriters must also simplify lyrics, so that not much (if any) thought is required to sing them. When lyrics are thus reduced, any truly meaningful content is similarly diminished or eliminated. One once-popular song consisted mostly of the words, "Yes, Lord, yes, Lord, yes yes, Lord," repeated ad nauseum. This is meaningless gibberish made to seem pious by the insertion of a particular word (but not the true Word).

What do such songs leave us with? A false sense of emotion. If there is no meaningful intellectual or rational content in a song, and only rudimentary music played in such a way as to elicit a given response, the only conclusion we can make is that the song's purpose is to evoke an emotional response. Of course, as we've attempted to show it's impossible to engender real or actual emotion in the absence of intellectual or rational content, and thus the feelings induced by praise music are empty and nebulous (at best).

Last: why are hymns not merely emotional as well? Hymns are designed to teach us about God even while we praise Him for His greatness, His beauty, and His infallible love. True emotions will naturally follow from such expressions, even very strong emotions, but those emotions will be preceded by apprehendable truths expressed in rational language.

Ultimately, praise music fails at the true purpose all church music should aim for: genuine worship. A feeling is not worship any more than embers constitute a fire. For songs to serve their true purpose in a church context, they must deliberately direct us to known truths about God, not simply toward our feelings about indefinable elements of religious experience. After all, dervishes work themselves into religiously-induced states of pure emotion, but that is in no sense genuine worship of any kind. Why do we suppose our purely emotional music is any different, even if Christ's name is mentioned fifty times throughout?