Music as "Sacramental": Foundations for a Theology of Music in the Spiritual Life

This thesis seeks to present a theological basis for the significant role of music in the encounter with God, by way of the Catholic spiritual tradition. It argues that musical experience, in its appeal to the entirety of the human person, is readily able to serve as a means of God’s self-revelation and a medium of grace, readying those who engage in it to encounter the divine, and possibly becoming, in and of itself, a locus of that encounter. The way in which music functions as sacramental is upheld by its participation in the mysteries of beauty and of human creativity, and ultimately undergirded by the Incarnation. This dissertation contends that the spiritual resonance of music is grounded in, as well as reveals afresh, the sacramental world in which we live. Further, this project grants music a pastoral value, in claiming its capability, allied with beauty, to contribute to our spiritual formation in Christ, commissioning us in the Christian vocation to love. Taking a thematic approach, this study employs Catholic theology and spirituality as a framework by which to understand and incorporate the potentiality and relevance of music in the life of faith. The conclusion of each chapter discusses particular pieces of music that serve to apply and to deepen the theological insights that went before. Chapter 1 takes sacramentality as a starting point, proposing that the dynamic of music-making is an echo of the sacramental cycle of receiving-offering-receiving anew. Chapter 2 moves to a consideration of the Incarnation, perception via the spiritual senses, and music’s relationship to the body. Chapter 3 pursues beauty as a transcendental property of Being and music’s role in bearing the beautiful. Chapter 4 examines contemplation, employing the musical metaphor of "listening" to the life of prayer. Finally, Chapter 5 posits the repercussions of music’s sacramentality for our relationship with God and neighbour, i.e., the fruitfulness of Christian discipleship that finds its ultimate model in the Blessed Virgin Mary.Doctor of Theology (ThD