Reimagining Spiritual Experience and Music
Jeffrey A. Summit
The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Music Studies November 20, 2023 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197528624.013.17 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Prayer leaders in liberal Jewish congregations in the United States who are known for constructing music-centered worship services |
| Key findings | Argues that Kook's "fourfold song" provides a useful typology for understanding a developing focus on spirituality in liberal Jewish congregational prayer and music. Interviews with prayer leaders suggest a shift from "religious experience" toward what Anne Taves terms "experiences deemed religious," which the author proposes as an organizing framework for emerging trends in spiritual expression and congregational music more broadly. |
Abstract
Abstract: Leaning on Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook’s poem of the “fourfold song” as a typology of categories, this chapter examines music and spiritual experience in (liberal) Jewish worship in the United States in the twenty-first century. Kook’s four categories—the song of the self, the song of one’s people, the song of humanity, and the song of all existence—provide a structure to consider a developing focus on spirituality in Jewish congregational prayer and song. Ethnographic interviews with prayer leaders who have built reputations for constructing worship services where music is a core component of spiritual expression provide insight into the evolving conceptions of music and worship. These suggest a reconceptualization, moving from “religious experience” to what Anne Taves has termed “experiences deemed religious.” This, in turn, provides an organizational framework for emerging trends in spiritual expression and, as such, has relevance to the broader study of the meaning and power of congregational music in religious life.