A New Song for an Old World

While the worship wars continue to rage in the church, many do not realize that conflict over music in congregations goes back to the earliest Christians.In "A New Song for and Old World: Musical Thought in the Early Church" Calvin Stapert challenges Christians to depart from our obsession with the new and to take advice from earlier thought on music. He draws parallels between the pagan cultures of the second and third centuries and our own multicultural realities, enabling readers to comprehend the musical ideas of myriad early Christian thinkers, from Clement and Tertullian to John Chrysostom and Augustine.This able treatment of the attitudes of the early church towards Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, is ideal for scholars of early Christianity, church musicians and all Christians looking to add an ancient yet relevant perspective to their worship today.