Music and Morality: Contemporary Christian Music and the Referential Formalism of Kimberly Smith
Although the “worship wars” surrounding the use of Contemporary Christian music first erupted within American evangelical circles in the 1960s, the points of view regarding the moral impact of music remain highly contested and relevant to the present day. Christian author Kimberly Smith (b. 1958) adds her voice to the debate surrounding the morality of music, asserting that Christians must draw a line between music that honors a holy God and music that embraces and reflects the fallen principles of this world.[1]
In this paper, I will present an objective synthesis of Kimberly Smith’s positions in order to demonstrate that philosophically, the author displays a “dual nature”—a unique combination of beliefs that I classify as “referential formalism.”[2] On the one hand, Smith’s writings express that the significance and meaning of music reside in the actual elements of the music itself, fulfilling Donald A. Hodges’s definition of absolute formalism.[3] On the other hand, Smith conveys the belief that within certain musical genres, the meaning and essence of music is found “in what the music points to outside itself,” defined by Hodges as referentialism.[4]
To establish Smith’s formalism, I will demonstrate that her position regarding the “physical elements” of music—particularly rhythm—is consistent with music principles that have been frequently expressed over the course of history, extending from the works of ancient Greek philosopher Plato to the statements of modern rock musicians such as Frank Zappa and Bono. To establish Smith’s referentialism, I will
compare Smith’s writings to the seventeenth-century works of René Descartes and will demonstrate that both philosophers indicate that music refers to something beyond itself. For Descartes, music points to the affections; for Smith, music points to morality.
As a classically trained church organist who has also served in contemporary Christian musical settings, I have observed these significant and far-reaching issues firsthand. In a church “full of dissenting voices” regarding the moral nature of music presented before God, this study can benefit Christians “who are willing to look at the subject objectively, rather than emotionally or pragmatically.”[5]
[1] Kimberly Smith, Oh, Be Careful Little Ears (Mukilteo, WA: Winepress Publishing, 1997), 16.
[2] Donald A. Hodges, A Concise Survey of Music Philosophy (New York: Routledge, 2017). See Table 7.3, Simplified Chart of Music Philosophies, 84. Hodges surmises that for most music philosophers “this dichotomy is an either-or proposition” (82). He considers the term “referential
formalism” to be “antithetical” and contradictory in nature because the term contains two opposing views on the nature and locus of musical meaning (84). Nevertheless, in this paper I present that a principled exception is justified in the case of Kimberly Smith.
[3] Hodges, A Concise Survey of Music Philosophy, 138.
[4] Hodges, A Concise Survey of Music Philosophy, 81.
[5] Kimberly Smith, emailed to the author, February 26, 2018.