Here’s just a few observations about this book.
This is not a book about music. This is a book about worship.
It is thoughtful, attempts to be biblical, and can be of great benefit to the reader.
When it comes to music philosophy, much is assumed and presupposed. Kauflin stands on the shoulders of Harold Best quite a bit.
Bob’s Background
He gives a summary of his background in worship and music, which I appreciated. A few years after becoming a Christian out of Catholicism, he began touring with GLAD for 8 years. They traveled to an extreme variety of churches that spanned nearly every Christian denomination.
He makes excellent points about the importance of doctrine in our lives. Every Christian is a theologian, he states.
Key points on Kauflin’s music philosophy:
- Sets up straw man repeatedly by representing conservatives as “one-kind” or “one-style” advocates. This makes it easy to refute, as God is “too big” to be represented by one style. page 104-105 etc
- In a 250+ page book, perhaps 10 pages are dedicated to dealing with what should be a vital issue: the nature of styles of music in communicating biblical truth. This fact alone is telling because he assumes any style of music can be a valid tool for conveying truth. Those who hold up this book as a defense of total musical pluralism are holding up an echo of Harold Best. this book assumes Best.
- to me, the biggest negative about the book is the impression given of unimportance of the discerning musical style in determining appropriateness. By dismantling a few straw men and omitting damaging correllaries from his own observations, he gives the impression that the issue of musical style is settled and deserves no more consideration.
- He follows Best in declaring that any offering of worship is made acceptable because of Jesus. The impression is given then that all offerings are equally valid. Is this really true?
- Kauflin’s stance on music philosophy is really Harold Best in Kauflin’s own words. This isn’t a criticism of Kauflin, as we all stand on the shoulders of others. But if you deal with Best, you have dealt with Kauflin.