Skip to main content

The Wages of Spin

I have read and enjoyed another Carl Trueman book. As a professor at Westminster, Trueman is a Reformed theologian and historian. However, almost all the books I’ve read by him are directed more at cultural issues and only slightly affected by his theology. In this book are two sections examining two Reformed theologians, J. Gresham […]

Worship and Culture

In the twenty years that I have been writing Aletheia articles, perhaps nothing has been written about more than worship and culture.  Worship has become the description of how we “do church,” and culture has become what we are, not what we should strive to become.  Ravi Zacharias wrote, “Culture has become like a dress […]

Worship in the Melting Pot

I had not read this 2002 book on worship by the pastor of Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle until this year.  I have heard Masters preach often at the Tabernacle so I can visualize the way he was talking about worship.  English worship is by nature different from American worship in incidental details.  Their worship is more […]

Oh, Be Careful Little Ears

This little book on music came out in 1997. It has been one of those controversial books that criticizes contemporary music on the basis of style. Smith’s educational background makes her qualified to do this, however, it is a difficult way for the rest of us laymen in music education to follow. I have read […]

It’s Not About The Music

This is Dan Lucarini’s third book.  His first book, Why I Left The Contemporary Christian Music Movement, had an immediate impact on today’s worship wars.  His second book which he co-authored with John Blanchard, Can We Rock The Gospel, was an even better detailed analysis of CCM and its effects on the church.  This book […]

Worship in Song

This is Aniol’s first book though it is the second I have read.  The Foreword is written by Dr. Kevin Bauder, President of Central Seminary, Minneapolis, MN where Scott Aniol has taken graduate classes.  Aniol also has a bachelor’s degree from BJU and a master’s degree in musicology from N. Illinois University.  I appreciated his […]

Sound Worship

Scott Aniol is a graduate of Bob Jones University, Northern Illinois University, and Central Baptist Seminary in Minneapolis.  He also has authored  Worship in Song.  This book is a basic study of music in the Bible and how music affects the individual, the church, and our culture.  Aniol says that music is an emotional response […]

Music and Worship

By Don Shrader Regarding music and worship in the church today, there is much controversy surrounding  “contemporary” versus “traditional” music in our services.  Some want to know what is meant by the use of the word “contemporary.”  Does it mean the use of rock music or is it simply the use of praise choruses or […]

Isaac Watts: His Life and Hymns

I’m interested in Watts (1674-1748) first for his great contribution to our hymn book.  Second because he was an influential pastor, educator, poet, and hymn writer in England just before the time of the Wesleys, John Newton, and William Cowper.  Watts was instrumental in getting hymn singing back into the church services among the nonconformist […]