Date

5-20-2026

Department

Rawlings School of Divinity

Degree

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

Chair

R. Matthew Lytle

Keywords

beauty, captivating music, enriched encounter, reductionism, resonances, spiritual formation, transcendence, theology of music, worship

Disciplines

Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion

Abstract

The problem this study addresses is that Trinity Anglican Church in Connersville, Indiana, had not cultivated a theology of music among its congregants to enrich encounters with God through music. The purpose of this DMIN action research project was to implement a small group study on the theology of music to enrich encounters with God through God-honoring, captivating music. The researcher employed a novel approach: Luke 10:27 served as a paradigmatic framework for exploring how music relates to the dimensions of heart (i.e., emotion), soul (i.e., spiritual encounter), strength (i.e., embodied experience), mind (i.e., intellect), and neighbor (i.e., communal and missional). Fourteen participants from Trinity Anglican Church and the surrounding community completed a three-session intervention. The researcher gathered data from pre- and post-intervention Likert-scale surveys, open-ended questionnaires, a focus group, individual interviews, and researcher observations. The triangulated data provide substantial support for the thesis that if a study of the theology of music is implemented, then congregants will experience enriched encounters with God through God-honoring, captivating music. The most direct measure produced a mean of 7.2 out of 10, and the perceived growth in holiness rose from 5.9 to 8.1. Participants demonstrated a deeper view of music as transcendent, greater discernment in evaluating worship music, and an emergent framework for evaluating musical truth, goodness, and beauty. This study begins to fill a gap in the literature by providing empirical evidence that congregational-level theology of music education is efficacious.

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