Criteria of Identification for Christian Music: An Ethicist's Perspective

Music has a universal appeal, and has long been associated with religion, including Christianity. However, there has been an on-going debate whether or not there is anything like “authentic Christian music”. Some investigators like Laurie Mellor believe that there is nothing like “Christian music”. Others say Christian music exists and that what is popularly called “worldlymusic” should not be played by Christians in private; it should also not be part of the music tradition of the church. For those who say there is Christian music, opinions vary on how it can be identified. Being a matter fraught with diverse emotional dispositional judgments, a multi-criteria approach was found to be more reasonable in bringing us closer to a realistic consideration of what should constitute the parameters of judging whether a piece of music is Christian or not. They are: (i) Inspiration/Source (ii) Lyrical Content (iii) Composer's Association (iv) After-Effect. These four dimensional criteria if applied together give a reasonable basis of conclusion. No one applied in isolation of all others will lead to a justifiable conclusion; however whenapplied together there is a credible chance.