The Sacramentality of Music

The means of holy encounter long associated with Baptism and Eucharist are increasingly challenged by music-making. Indeed, music as an emotive art form of expression is being seen as suitable medium to encounter the divine. It is fitting that Dr. Christina Labriola, a scholar in the Catholic liturgical tradition now investigates this medium to understand how it may strengthen spiritual formation in the encounter with God. Labriola's book is essential reading to all who desire to understand how music can enhance worship as an expression of love for God and neighbour in its use. This valuable book offers a rich and stimulating approach to music's sacramentality. It is a pastorally oriented theology and spirituality of music, undergirded by a keen musical intelligence. The argument builds on Catholic foundations--from Hildegard to von Balthasar--but with the windows wide open. Labriola's generosity shines through in her writing, celebrating music's transformative potential under divine grace, rejoicing in the overflowing love of the triune God. What is a sacrament, and how can music help us define it? Alternately erudite and reflective, The Sacramentality of Music tells us in a sustained and systematically argued theological work. Adding her voice to what she describes as ""the dazzling symphonic array of theological consideration of music's spiritual import"", Labriola rises to the challenge, testing our presumptions and revising our understanding with a clear, comprehensive and critically astute analysis of the topic.