Strings of Divinity: The Role of the Violin in Religious Music, Spirituality and Emotional Well-being across Cultures.
Wenjun Li
Journal of Religion and Health January 25, 2026 DOI: 10.1007/s10943-026-02566-w (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative historical and ethnomusicological analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Religious traditions including Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Chinese Buddhism, and indigenous practices |
| Topics | Buddhism |
| Keywords | Humans Emotions Culture Cross-cultural comparison Religion Christianity Hinduism Psychological well-being Religious music Cross-cultural analysis Ethnomusicology Violin Spirituality and music |
| Key findings | Argues that the violin serves as a transcultural sacred instrument that evokes transcendent feeling, mediates emotional expression, supports spiritual well-being, and symbolizes divine association across Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Islamic, Chinese Buddhist, and indigenous religious contexts, while also showing culture-specific differences in its use. |
Abstract
Music and religion have a long and interwoven relationship, with music being a tool for worship a way for spiritual experiences, and a method to express faith. The role of music, especially the use of the violin, in the context of religions, emotional, psychological and spiritual well-being in different cultures, is rarely studied. This study examines the spiritual, emotional, and cultural aspects of the violin in religious platforms through varied colors of religious traditions Christianity, Jews, Hindu, Muslims, Chinese Buddhism, and indigenous practices people. Such studies are the testaments to the consistency of the music-violin in the cross-cultural endurance and appeal at the spiritual level. The qualitative, historic and ethnomusicological methodologies in research are used to examine the roles of the violin in the religious context using secondary literature and sources of musicological reports, ethnography, historical reports and performances in music that were recorded. The article considers the role of the instrument in connection with its ability to bring about transcendent feeling, mediation of emotional outpouring, spiritual well-being and correlation of representation of divine association within religious ritual processes and ceremonies. It establishes common and divergent uses of the violin through a comparative model across various cultures. The subsequent discussion touches upon the history of the way the violin was used religiously and how globalization, modernization, and cultural hybridity changed its importance in religious music nowadays. The documented studies demonstrate how the instrument was adopted into Christian sacred concertos, Jewish Klezmer and synagogue traditions, Hindu traditions of bhajan performances, Islamic Sufi rituals and Chinese religious traditions of ensembles. The paper is able to show this through its analysis of these contexts, to present the violin as a special transcultural sacred instrument that serves to mark a line between individual and societal worshipping. Finally, the study gives credence to the continued usefulness and significance of the violin in the soundscape of religious manifestations across the world.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists Western Buddhist meditation practitioners and experts in Theravāda, Zen, and Tibetan... | 2017 | Qualitative study with mixed-methods | |
| A phenomenology of meditation-induced light experiences: traditional buddhist and neurobiological perspectives American Buddhist practitioners | 2014 | Qualitative study | |
| Common Core Thesis and Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Mysticism in Chinese Buddhist Monks and Nuns Chinese Pure Land and Chan Buddhist monks and nuns | 2011 | Mixed-methods study | n = 139 |
| Anger regulation in traumatized Cambodian refugees: the perspectives of Buddhist monks. Buddhist Cambodian monks in Massachusetts | 2011 | Qualitative study | n = 6 |
| The Lived Experiences of Experienced Vipassana Mahasi Meditators: an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Experienced Vipassana Mahasi meditators | 2018 | Qualitative study |