And then we have this news release, just out:

Connecting Rock Music and Theology
Unique blog stems from project sponsored by Liturgical Press

COLLEGEVILLE, MINNESOTA—Liturgical Press is pleased to announce the launch of rockandtheology.com, a
blog that explores the relationship between rock music and academic theology.
No matter where one’s interests lie, they usually have a way of running into each other. In Tom Beaudoin’s case,
his two main passions not only came together, but ended up fitting unexpectedly well.

Beaudoin is a professor of theology and has been playing bass guitar in rock bands since 1985. He knows others
in the field with his same interest in music and always wondered how they “lived” in both rock and theology.
After seeing a 2007 story on the rock musician persona of Notker Wolf, OSB, Abbot Primate of the Benedictine
Confederation of the Order of Saint Benedict, he was inspired to pursue a deeper integration of the two. Knowing
the strong Benedictine heritage behind Liturgical Press, Beaudoin presented his idea for an ongoing conversation
of identity between all who consider themselves part theologian, part rocker. His Rock and Theology Project and
its first real product, the Rock and Theology Blog, are sponsored by Liturgical Press.

Two years after Beaudoin’s inspiration for the overall project, the Rock and Theology Blog is now live and filled
with insightful entries by himself, “band mates” Brian Robinette and Michael Iafrate, and other contributors.
And according to Beaudoin, “[T]here’s more to come. We hope the blog will be a place to ask how faith and
culture constellate, how contemporary social embodiment comes to be spiritual-religious, by cycling through
the cultures of rock and theology. To discover new pleasures in theology and secular music, however difficult the
lessons of those pleasures for what we thought theology and rock had to be. And to test, as a blog, the virtues of
the ephemeral for all of us who live engulfed by the worldly and the spiritual.”
Join in the ongoing conversation at www.rockandtheology.com.

Tom Beaudoin is associate professor of theology in the Graduate School of Religion at Fordham University in New
York City. He is the author of Virtual Faith (Jossey-Bass/Simon and Schuster, 1998), Consuming Faith (Rowman
and Littlefield/Sheed and Ward, 2003), and Witness to Dispossession: The Vocation of a Postmodern Theologian
(Orbis, 2008), and many chapters, essays, and articles on theology and culture. He is also at work on a project
on Catholics in practical theology. His most recent music was with the San Jose-based band Speedwalker, for
whom he was the bassist from 2005-2008.

Michael Iafrate is a theology student and musician originally from West Virginia. He has been active in inde-
pendent music circles for about 15 years, playing in such bands as The Minus Tide, M Iafrate & The Priesthood,
Drown Culture and COBRA. His master’s degree in theology is from Wheeling Jesuit University and he is current-
ly pursuing a doctorate in theology at the University of St. Michael’s College at the Toronto School of Theology.
Brian Robinette is associate professor of theology at Saint Louis University, and the author of Grammars of
Resurrection: A Christian Theology of Presence and Absence (Herder and Herder/Crossroad, 2009) and several
articles on christology and mysticism. He is currently the drummer for the Saint Louis-based band West of Sky.

Where does it say this has anything to do with church music? Where does it say these people want rock music in the Mass? I missed that part. As I understand it, it seems they're trying to blend rock music with Catholic academic theology, which is... an interesting endeavor. Not something that would interest me, as the terms "good rocker" and "professor of Catholic higher theology" generally don't go together. On the other hand, if it bothers the old people, I'm all for it.

But let's not pretend people making Catholic culture a little less boring are setting out to destroy the liturgy.

What the heck does the phrase 'How faith and culture constellate' mean, anyway. This whole thing strikes me as trying to mix oil and water- it'll never happen.
Donna Swan

mia:

I was looking for that excerpt! I posted something else on their blog, but this is much more fitting. Put it on their site!

"There has always been a distinction between the Sacred and the Profane." FNJ

"The interaction of the sacred and secular in music came to an important point with the Renaissance Mass, in which a secular piece...could be the basis of a Mass. This is often cited as evidence of a lack of distinction between sacred and secular...but I would contend that is evidence of a more important process. A Mass based upon a tune such as 'L'Homme arme,' incorportates that tune in long notes-a cantus firmus, and in an intricate and learned polyphonic texture. It is no longer just the tune, but part of a larger whole, whose sacred character is unmistakable. Thus, the secular has been sacralized, turned to a sacred purpose through an apt stylistic transformation." ______?

I'm just having fun, Frogman, no intent other than irony. Apples v. oranges, I know. The most provocative thing about your original post is the title's association with the Benectines. Now that is a biting liqueur a bit difficult to swallow!

From what I could make out, nothing on the blog is about bringing rock music into church, so feel free to breathe a sigh of relief.

So far. :-)

One of the writers on that blog actually touches on a point that many of us would endorse. He speaks of the "DIY" (do-it-yourself) culture of punk rock as a rebellion against middle-class consumer culture in which music is a product, marketed to be "consumed". That sort of skepticism about commercially produced music shows up here on the forum from time to time. Alas, the writer didn't say anything more on the subject, so I can't point out to you any really substantive comments there.

Anyone here who doesn't like ANY secular music? Rock? Techno? Swing? Wagner? Berlioz? I'm not a monk or a Calvinist Puritan, so I do like my secular music, which includes some of the above-mentioned. When it comes to worldly amusements, I quote Luther: "It is better to think of church in the ale-house than to think of ale in the church." Something about Roman Catholic culture tells me that the non-killjoys would have no problem with this project.

I'm still wanting to hear an explanation of the phrase 'How faith and culture constellate '
Donna

gregp Thank you for your "enlightening" explanation. It was just that I never realized there was a verb form of the word 'constellation'. All is now clear as a night sky in Kansas. :)

Donna

Would that Aristotle could be living at this hour
:)

Donna

"Is 'constellate' related to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds?"

No, It's Mary in heaven with Jesus.

Don't know, but I want to try a marshmallow pie.