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Sacred Metalcore: a Worship, Culture, & Missiology Study of the Christian Metal Scene

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Sacred Metalcore: a Worship, Culture, & Missiology Study of the Christian Metal Scene Sacred Metalcore: A worship, culture, & missiology study of the Christian metal scene by Paul T. Lattimer A capstone project submitted in partial fulfillment of graduating from the Academic Honors Program at Ashland University December 2012 Faculty Mentor: Dr. Craig Hovey, Assistant Professor of Religion Additional Reader: Dr. Sue Dickson, Assistant Professor of Religion Lattimer i ©2012 Paul Lattimer All Rights Reserved Lattimer ii Abstract My argument is that the Christian faith can be legitimately enacted within the subculture context of the modern metal music scene. Specifically, I survey important pieces of literature about both the secular and the sacred versions of the metal scene and examine how the Christian faith is put into practice within the scene in terms of worship style and evangelistic tactics. Some object that the metal scene is not fit for Christian practice because of its historical linkage with devil worship, explicit sexual references, profane language, rebellious attitude, violence, and church burnings, but I argue that the redemptive power of Christ and the Godhead is powerful enough to redeem a broken music scene and transform it into a new creation that can bring honor, glory, and praise to the one true God. In addition to surveying the scene and arguing for the legitimacy of it, I also discuss the pros and cons that accompany the translation of the Christian faith into a different cultural context. In the end, I determine that, while the Christian metal scene is not your traditional, Sunday morning church service, the scene is a legitimate form of Christian expression that must be carried out with care and caution because of the gravity and responsibility that accompanies bringing the gospel into a new realm. Lattimer iii Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1 Literature Review .......................................................................................................................................... 2 Literature Review of Marcus Moberg’s “The ‘double controversy’ of Christian metal” .......................... 2 Literature Review of Marcus Moberg’s “The internet and the construction of a transnational Christian metal music scene” ................................................................................................................................... 5 Literature Review of Dietmar Elflein’s “Slaying the Pulse: Rhythmic Organisation and Rhythmic Interplay within Heavy Metal” ................................................................................................................ 10 Literature Review of Marcus Moberg’s “Turn or Burn? The Peculiar Case of Christian Metal Music” .. 11 Literature Review of Richard J. Floeckher’s “Fuck Euphemisms: How Heavy Metal Lyrics Speak the Truth about War” .................................................................................................................................... 13 Literature Review of Christian Hoffstadt and Michael Nagenborg’s “You’re too Fuckin’ Metal for Your Own Good! Controlled Anger and the Expression of Intensity and Authenticity in Post-Modern Heavy Metal” ..................................................................................................................................................... 16 Literature Review of H. Richard Niebuhr’s Christ & Culture ................................................................... 18 Literature Review of Perry L. Glanzer’s “Christ and the Heavy Metal Subculture: Applying Qualitative Analysis to the Contemporary Debate about H. Richard Niebuhr's Christ and Culture” ........................ 19 The Translation Issue .................................................................................................................................. 24 Budde’s Warning against the Blind Acceptance of Cultural Elements ................................................... 24 Hovey, Hauerwas, & Borg on the Translation Issue ................................................................................ 27 What does scripture have to say?........................................................................................................... 28 Seamands and How to Do Translation .................................................................................................... 30 Christian Missiology within the Metal Scene .............................................................................................. 32 Christianity as an Adaptive Religion ........................................................................................................ 32 Enter Christian Missiology within the Christian Metal Music Scene ...................................................... 33 What is the scene actually putting forth? ............................................................................................... 34 Case Studies within the Christian Metal Music Scene ............................................................................ 37 What Sorts of People Does the Scene Produce? .................................................................................... 41 Christian Worship within the Metal Scene ................................................................................................. 43 Hart v Dallh: What Constitutes Beauteous Worship Music? .................................................................. 44 Is Heavy Worship Actually Worship? ...................................................................................................... 47 Liturgical Worship ................................................................................................................................... 48 Traditional Evangelical Worship ............................................................................................................. 50 Lattimer iv Contemporary Worship .......................................................................................................................... 53 Blended Worship..................................................................................................................................... 56 Emerging Worship ................................................................................................................................... 59 Diverse Worship ...................................................................................................................................... 61 Tying the Six Perspectives Together ....................................................................................................... 63 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 64 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................ 66 Author’s Biography ..................................................................................................................................... 70 Introduction Heavy metal emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s; this music genre is a fusion of psychedelic rock and blues-based, hard rock. Some early examples include Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Many heavy metal bands promoted themes of evil, death, and destruction with their music, and the occult, Satanism, and the evil forces within Christianity were common sources of lyrical inspiration. As time progressed, subgenres such as death metal and black metal emerged in the 1980s and 1990s.1 Over the years, metal has gathered a résumé of controversy from acts such as church burnings by the Norwegian black metal scene. Nevertheless, metal still exists today, and the term metal is mainly used as a generic word to encompass the various subgenres and styles that still carry the core, aesthetic qualities of the music form. There is an academic response to the existence of the metal scene, and Marcus Moberg, a researcher at the Åbo Akademi University in Turku, Finland, states that metal is both the most controversial and most enduring music genre of our time.2 When the Christian faith encounters any new culture or context, it has a choice. The faith can either infiltrate and transform the culture, or it can shun and denounce the new culture. Throughout history, Christianity has chosen to adapt to its new contexts, and, consequently, Christianity has evolved to be one of the most popular and widespread faiths across the globe. Yet, there is an inherent danger to adapting to new contexts; some aspects of Christian truth are threatened to be lost in the translation. At the same time, translating the Christian faith to a new 1 The different subgenres of music within the wider metal scene have special focuses that substantiate their subgenre categorizations; for example, the subgenre of black metal is a more extreme form of metal music that commonly has Satanic, pagan, or anti-Christian themes in the lyrics. 2 Marcus Moberg, “The internet and the construction of a transnational Christian metal music scene,” Culture and Religion 9, vo. 1 (2008): 85-87. Lattimer 2 context can also further unfold the religion, and we can learn more about the inner workings of the faith by translating it to new contexts. The question of Christ and culture is a very significant one, and the purpose of this thesis is to investigate the way in which the Christian
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