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Religious music for godless ears

Religious music for godless ears
Religious music for godless ears
The discussion in this paper sets out from two thoughts, one a straightforward empirical observation, the other a worry. The observation is that many who do not believe in God nevertheless regard certain pieces of religious music, such as Bach’s B minor Mass, as among the greatest works of art. The worry is that there must be something compromised or incomplete in the atheist’s experience of such works. Taken together, these thoughts would seem to point to the sceptical conclusion that the high regard in which many atheists hold works such as the B minor Mass must itself be compromised, or in some way unwarranted. The majority of the paper is devoted to clarifying the initial worry through the investigation of a series of (failed) attempts to avoid the sceptical conclusion, before?—?at the end of the paper?—?we argue that, for at least one sort of atheist, there is, after all, a mode of engagement with great religious music that might afford an experience of it which would underwrite his judgement that the work is, indeed, great.
0026-4423
999-1023
Neill, Alex
356f9035-0820-4df8-838d-94b5bd219814
Ridley, Aaron
64d82169-aa92-4352-975d-2ef8bb3f2cc7
Neill, Alex
356f9035-0820-4df8-838d-94b5bd219814
Ridley, Aaron
64d82169-aa92-4352-975d-2ef8bb3f2cc7

Neill, Alex and Ridley, Aaron (2010) Religious music for godless ears. Mind, 119 (476), 999-1023. (doi:10.1093/mind/fzq075).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The discussion in this paper sets out from two thoughts, one a straightforward empirical observation, the other a worry. The observation is that many who do not believe in God nevertheless regard certain pieces of religious music, such as Bach’s B minor Mass, as among the greatest works of art. The worry is that there must be something compromised or incomplete in the atheist’s experience of such works. Taken together, these thoughts would seem to point to the sceptical conclusion that the high regard in which many atheists hold works such as the B minor Mass must itself be compromised, or in some way unwarranted. The majority of the paper is devoted to clarifying the initial worry through the investigation of a series of (failed) attempts to avoid the sceptical conclusion, before?—?at the end of the paper?—?we argue that, for at least one sort of atheist, there is, after all, a mode of engagement with great religious music that might afford an experience of it which would underwrite his judgement that the work is, indeed, great.

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Published date: October 2010

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 79718
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/79718
ISSN: 0026-4423
PURE UUID: fed7139f-c774-408c-9996-527138fa5a1e

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Date deposited: 19 Mar 2010
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 00:32

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