A Tudor Tutorial

In churches that retain the regular singing of the Sanctus, worshipers are reminded that their song of adoration—"Holy, holy, holy"—is sung with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven. Our earthly worship echoes the harmonious praise of a heavenly host. In Christian theology, not just formal worship but the whole of creation has often been understood as a musical expression with heavenly sources. David Bentley Hart has observed that,

According to Gregory of Nyssa, creation is a wonderfully wrought hymn to the power of the Almighty: the order of the universe is a kind of musical harmony, richly and multifariously toned, guided by an inward rhythm and accord, pervaded by an essential "symphony"; the melody and cadence of the cosmic elements in their intermingling sing of God's glory, as does the interrelation of motion and rest within created things; and in this sympathy of all things one with the other, music in its truest and most perfect form is bodied forth.

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Ken Myers is the host and producer of the Mars Hill Audio Journal. Formerly an arts editor with National Public Radio, he also served as editor of Eternity, the Evangelical monthly magazine, and This World, the quarterly predecessor to First Things. He also serves as music director at All Saints Anglican Church in Ivy, Virginia. He is a contributing editor for Touchstone.

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