How the Choir Converted the World: Through Hymns, With Hymns,

How the Choir Converted the World: Through Hymns, With Hymns, and In Hymns

Music is the most effective delivery system for feelingsâ€”love, joy, sadness, glory. The early Church Fathers knew that music also has power over minds, and they used that power to maximum effect, writing hymns through which the early Christians would learn, retain, and spread the Gospel message. In How the Choir Converted the World, best-selling author Mike Aquilina demonstrates how the earliest Christians used music to transform a world that desperately needed transforming. As Aquilina suggests, â€œIf we did it once, we can do it again.â€

About the author

Mike Aquilina is the author or co-author of over forty books, including the best-selling The Fathers of the Church: An Introduction to the First Christian Teachers; The Mass of the Early Christians; and Angels of God: The Bible, the Church, and the Heavenly Hosts. His reviews, essays, and journalism have appeared in First Things, Touchstone, National Catholic Register, and elsewhere. Aquilina is the Executive Vice President of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology and along with Dr. Scott Hahn has hosted several popular television series on the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). He and his wife Terri live in the Pittsburgh area with their six children.

Endorsements:

â€œThis is the perfect gift for your parish music directorâ€”and the whole choirâ€”and everyone who should be singing in the congregation. When we sing, we pray, and we evangelize too. Thatâ€™s one way the early Christians changed the world.â€

â€”Scott Hahn, Professor of Theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville and best-selling author of The Creed

â€œAquilina has all the qualities that a good guide should possess: he knows the terrain (taking the reader through Scripture, antiquity, and the Church Fathers), he has a discerning eye (spotting the place of music in the Church), and is an engaging wit (the reader feels like he has been brought to stand outside the Jerusalem Temple, or in Ephremâ€™s choir, or beside Ambrose in the great cathedral at Milan). This book considers an important but overlooked element of theologia prima, namely, how the Church performs her theology in what is actually sung doctrine. Easily accessible, fascinating, and inspiring to believers today.â€

â€”David Fagerberg, Professor of Liturgical Studies at Notre Dame University and author of On Liturgical Asceticism

â€œFrom apostolic times, hymns to Jesus have instilled the truth of who he is and professed what he has marvelously done on our behalf. Mike Aquilina has written a splendid book defending why hymns and the singing of hymns resides within the very heart of Christian theology and worship. All who read this book will lift up, with greater fervor and deeper adoration, their hearts, minds, and voices in praise to Jesus.â€

â€”Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap. Author of Jesus: Essays in Christology

â€œWhether youâ€™re an enthusiastic choir member or a semi-silent pew sitter, you will find Mike Aquilinaâ€™s How the Choir Converted the World edifying, informative, and highly enjoyable. Tracing musicâ€™s role in the rise of early Christianity, Aquilina shows how the Church turned to godly hymns in response to the music of immoral pagan rites, thereby winning the battle for peopleâ€™s minds and hearts. The lesson is clear: beauty saved the world once and beauty can save it again from a perverse and violent culture. This wise and engaging book presents us with a timely challenge to do just that.â€

â€”Russell Shaw, Author of Catholics in America

â€œWe all love to singâ€”to raise our voice in songâ€”even if not always in tune. Mike Aquilina walks us through centuries of faith, teaching, doctrine, and spirituality, explaining as we go the significance of music, the value of human song, and the unique power of voices joined in choir.â€

â€”Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, D.C. and author of To the Martyrs

â€œUsing the Bible, the Church Fathers, and auth

Country	USA
Author	Mike Aquilina
Binding	Kindle Edition
EISBN	9781945125218
Format	Kindle eBook
IsAdultProduct
Label	Emmaus Road Publishing
Manufacturer	Emmaus Road Publishing
NumberOfPages	124
PublicationDate	2016-12-11
Publisher	Emmaus Road Publishing
ReleaseDate	2016-12-11
Studio	Emmaus Road Publishing

How the Choir Converted the World: Through Hymns, With Hymns, and In Hymns

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