Musikken og tapet av transcendens

Abstract

In the scientific secularisation of the modern worldview, music has lost its transcendent point of reference, taken for granted in pre-modern times. However, Protestant theology has contributed to this secularisation by a strict separation between (platonic) eros and (Christian) agape, and rejection of any kind of metaphysics. Consequently, and contrary to Martin Luther, music is from a theological point of view valued primarily as a convenient tool for communicating the word of God. This article takes a different course. Starting out with Peter Berger’s “signals of transcendence”, music is investigated as a kind of aesthetic experience from the point of view of “immanent transcendence” (Dorthe Jørgensen) and “self-transcendence” (Hans Joas). Aesthetic experience is not a kind of internal self-ignition, but “attachment” (Rita Felski), understood as an experience of being “arrested” and pulled beyond oneself by something external. In this kind of transcendence, there is a recognition of things valuable in themselves and a gratefulness that may be received as creational grace. From this point of view, music has a privileged position in its power not just to affect our emotions, but also to transform our eros.