Music-making as a performed Theology of Christian relating

Most current work which seeks to engage both music and theology is mainly focused on music for the contribution it can make to understanding theological themes which can generally be understood otherwise (Begbie), or on integrating music and theology into a wider social, cultural, and intellectual context which acknowledges God's presence throughout the world, and assigns to music a sacramental role (Brown). The thesis avoids both these approaches, seeking rather to understand music-making as having theological import in and of itself. From the side of theology, Trinitarian theology and the work of Daniel Hardy, Herman Bavinck and Christoph Schwöbel are major themes. From the side of music, performance practice, the reception of music, and the extra-musical qualities which are nonetheless integral to music-making are to the fore. The thesis turns on being able successfully to draw an analogy between intra-Trinitarian life and the relational life of performing musicians, especially those in small musical ensembles. On the basis of this analogy, I conclude that music-making is a performed theology which captures what it is for human beings to be related to one another in Christian ways.