Caveat on Piper's View of Glory

As much as I admire John Piper I believe he has his weaknesses. I fear that some of Piper's followers may be (already are?) tempted to unwittingly substitute joy for God in certain respects. While it is true that joy is in God, it is not true that joy IS God. Piper does put a very strong emphasis on the sharp edges of truth, suffering, hard work, patience and service as vital aspects of finding "joy" in God, but his call for "hedonism" always comes through strongly. The problem is that people are always tempted to neglect harder edges and just hear a call for joy as justification for a more superficial hedonism. I do wonder whether Piper might inadvertantly stimulate unrealistic expectations of current experiences of joy that can lead people to seek joy in inappropriate ways.

There is a movement among those passionate about CCM and "Praise and Worship Music" who seek to reform CCM & P&W with Piper's theology. I am grateful for whatever theological reformation can be brought to the lyrics of CCM, but that is not enough reform since there are dangers inherent in the philosophy of music itself. Piper does not address this issue, but I believe those who admire his teaching need to address it.

Rock music has been promoted from its inception as a religion that replaces Christian orthodoxy and its dogma of transcendence, the future and patience. Lyrics have always been a secondary concern to Rock (in its many forms). Lyrics rest in the shadow of an emphasis on physical, visceral, sensation and passionate experience. Like specific doctrines of "sects" within a wider religion, words are not unimportant to Rock, but they do pale and become trivialized in comparison to the driving existential and experiential philosophy of the music itself.

I am not convinced Piper's followers seeking to reform CCM have adequately shone the light of his God-centered, Christ-exalting, theology on the root philosophy of the music itself. It betrays an serious inconsistency to insist that the term "Glory of God" is objective when speaking in theological and moral terms, but the term "Glory of God" is subjective, even self-centered, when applied to aesthetic experiences. The Bible does not make this kind of distinction, but uses "Glory" objectively when refering both to moral and aesthetic categories. The Bible reveals God is just as "high and lifted up" aesthetically as morally. In neither sense are we justified in making the root meaning of "God's Glory" as "we feel high and lifted up." Our feeling must be subject to an objective sense or we are no different than the radical post-modern, self-centered, relativists.
Promises of joy and "pleasure"are highly attractive, and clearly important in Scripture, but (I hope) Piper means something different than the buzz that "passionate" music generates. People are so bored in our entertainment saturated world that entertainment values are permeating every part of life. This superficial hedonism is too often considered a quest for "joy."

Unfortunately Piper has not written clearly on a theology of aesthetics and music. This might be considered excusable since no one can address every issue of a given era. But to miss the overwhelming importance given to "upbeat music" and Rock's revolt against objective, rational based religion misses one of the most important issues of our time. Even Friedrich Nietzsche, in a sense the 'father' of our post-modern times, insisted that a new 'liberated' 'dionysian' view of music was a critically important issue in subduing the Christian influence of the past.

A few years ago, when I had the great priviledge of meeting him, I asked Piper what his view of music was. His quick response was essentially "all things to all people to win some." On the other hand, I have heard Piper speak about CCM in ways that shows he is a little uneasy about at least some things. He has commented on how "incrediblly loud" it tends to be and how the crowd gyrates around. It doesn't seem evident that he has thought through why CCM needs to be so loud. There are philosophical (and "theological") reasons for it that can and should be evaluated.

Piper and his followers need to work out a theology of aesthetics to apply his core views to the realms of art and culture and overall interaction with creation. We need a deeper philosophy of music than justifying the hedonism of Rock music with "good theology." We need to examine what is driving and shaping the music itself and not fall into a Gnostic notion that God is disinterested in physical realities and only cares about "our hearts" so that we can (must?) place ourselves as the center of our standards of music and art.