Worship, Music, and Interpretation

""Wendy J. Porter has offered the church an unusual perspective of the interchange between worship, music and interpretation in the life of Christian worship over time. Porter is successful in interweaving her findings into an insightful contribution to help alleviate the common tendency to bifurcate areas of study. Porter's scholarly and mature work should be read by every serious practitioner of musical worship."" --Constance Cherry, professor emeritus, Indiana Wesleyan University ""Wendy Porter's essays are a wonderful gift to the church. Deeply rooted in biblical text and the history of worship through music, she offers a series of important probes that remind us of the importance and challenges of music in worship. All who are engaged in leading and planning worship need to read and reflect on these important papers."" --David Firth, tutor in Old Testament, Trinity College Bristol ""Understanding contemporary worship is difficult for contemporary people because you can't read the label from inside the bottle. In this collection, Dr. Wendy Porter uses her skills as a musicologist and liturgical historian to lead readers outside the bottle, deftly exploring how music has interpreted and expressed the Christian faith. Page after page shines fresh light that will help scholars, students, and practitioners of Christian worship."" --Dr. Matthew Westerholm, professor of church music & worship, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary ""Porter's Worship, Music, and Interpretation brings together thirty years of scholarship. Her essays--which address music and texts set to music from Old Testament times to the twenty-first century--draw attention to the complex diversity of Christian musical expression while highlighting continuous functions of ""contemporary"" composers of every generation. Highly recommended!"" --Joshua A. Waggener, professor of church music and worship, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary