Jazz and Christian Freedom - Improvising against the Grain of the West

Contemporary Western society has a strange relationship with freedom. Unbridled subjective liberty and narrow fundamentalism pull away from each other in mutual loathing while sociological forces seek to manipulate both sides. The church needs to recover and reconstruct a theology of freedom to navigate between the perils of both extremes and to avoid being manipulated by these forces. Just as biblical figures are taught through parables and metaphors, this book uses jazz improvisation as an analogy for Christian freedom. Just as jazz improvisation relies on successfully navigating constraints such as the history and traditions of jazz, jazz theory, and musical instruments, so Christian freedom also relies on constraints such as the biblical canon, church history, theology, and the church itself. Through understanding the freedom jazz musicians enjoy in making music together, we can better understand how Christian freedom might be enacted in daily life. If Western churches discover and enact Christian freedom in a meaningful way, the songs that they improvise will be as siren calls to people in chains.

"It is for freedom that Christ sets us free, but it's hard to set forth in speech what freedom means. Postmoderns view freedom in terms of self-expression and self-determination, twin impulses that lie at the heart of contemporary culture's rejection of institutional constraints. By way of contrast Bradley Broadhead contends that it is precisely by respecting certain constraints that jazz musicians are enabled to improvise--which is to say, enact freedom in a musical register. Jazz impovisation becomes a parable, not of the kingdom of God, but of Christian freedom in that kingdom.Jazz and Christian Freedom offers a biblical theology of freedom and then, within these canonical constraints, draws out insightful analogies between musical improvisation and Christian life together. You may never look at either jazz or Jesus in quite the same way again."
--Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

"This is a lucidly written, deeply thoughtful, and stimulating study--one that deserves to be widely read by any concerned with the growing conversation between theology and music."
--Jeremy Begbie, Duke University

Bradley K. Broadhead is the pastor of Oyen Evangelical Missionary Church, Oyen, Alberta. He has taught courses such as "Theology and Music" and "The Life and Thought of C. S. Lewis" as an adjunct instructor and has published a few articles in the area of theology and music. He has also played in a wide variety of ensembles as a trombonist and has taught low brass for over a decade.

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