The study focuses on the reception of contemporary worship music by Pentecostal congregations in contemporary Russia. The genre of contemporary worship music, which emerged in the United States in the late 1970s, began to infiltrate the religious life of Christians in Russia at the end of the Soviet era. Contemporary worship music was most readily accepted among Russian Protestants, causing some heated debates: whereas among Evangelical Baptist Christians, Seventh-day Adventists, and parts of Pentecostal communities’ disagreement over the use of contemporary worship music was largely resolved in the 1990s, music has until recently been one of the most important factors in separating believers with respect to Charismatic Pentecostal congregations. The novelty of the research lies in a comprehensive analysis of the historical foundations of the reception of contemporary worship music in Russia, carried out from a secular perspective. As a result of the research it has been established that the reception of contemporary worship music by Pentecostals at the present stage is characterized by a rejection of rigid polemics concerning the music played in worship services. At the same time, the musical design has its regional characteristics: the possibility of using reinterpreted traditional hymns; genre diversity aimed at overcoming the boundaries between denominations and attracting believers of other confessions; the inadmissibility of oversimplification of verse text; and the search for compromise with some of the older generation parishioners. The established facts and identified regularities associated with the inclusion of contemporary secular music in the structure of worship can be used in prospective studies devoted to the analysis of typologically similar phenomena.
Keywords: contemporary worship music, praise and worship music, worship music, secular music, Pentecostals, worship wars
DOI: 10.22250/20728662_2022_2_129
About the author
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Arseniy A. Belomytsev – Head of the Department for the Prevention of Extremism on Religious Grounds of the Monitoring Department in the Field of Interethnic and Interfaith Relations, Federal Agency for Ethnic Affairs; post-graduate student of A. F. Shishkin Department of Philosophy, Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO); 76 Vernadskogo av., Moscow, 119454, Russia; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. |