Singing the Resurrection: Body, Community, and Belief in Reformation Europe (The New Cultural History of Music Series)

This book explores the lived experience of belief in Reformation Europe through two distinct yet deeply connected themes: the resurrection of the body and the act of singing. In late medieval Europe, the chanting of the Creed in the context of the Mass implied a universal community of faith that began in the time of Christ and was to endure until the dead were raised at the apocalypse. In the sixteenth century, these bonds were broken. European Christians continued to affirm the Creed’s promise of the universal resurrection of the dead, but they raised their voices in a range of new songs, each of which expressed a different interpretation of resurrection’s promise of the restoration of the individual body and the reunion of the Christian community. Using case studies drawn from each of the major traditions of the Reformation—Lutheran, Anabaptist, Reformed, and Catholic—this book reveals sixteenth-century belief in its full complexity. Whereas narratives of the Reformation have long equated belief with doctrine, songs of resurrection reveal contemporary understandings of belief that at once emphasized its understanding and embodiment, its ephemerality and eternal endurance, its utter individuality and its power as a tie that bound. In the religious ruptures of the Reformation, this book argues, belief was transformed into a way of living in the world. "Singing the Resurrection brings music to the foreground of Reformation studies, as author Erin Lambert explores song as a primary mode for the expression of belief among ordinary Europeans in the sixteenth century, for the embodiment of individual piety, and the creation of new communities of belief. Together, resurrection and song reveal how sixteenth-century Christians--from learned theologians to ordinary artisans, and Anabaptist martyrs to Reformed Christians facing exile--defined belief not merely as an assertion or affirmation but as a continuous, living practice. Thus these voices, raised in song, tell a story of the Reformation that reaches far beyond the transformation from one community of faith to many. With case studies drawn from each of the major confessions of the Reformation--Lutheran, Anabaptist, Reformed, and Catholic--Singing the Resurrection reveals sixteenth-century belief in its full complexity."--Publisher's description Singing the Resurrection brings music to the foreground of Reformation studies, as author Erin Lambert explores song as a primary mode for the expression of belief among ordinary Europeans in the sixteenth century, for the embodiment of individual piety, and the creation of new communities of belief. Together, resurrection and song reveal how sixteenth-century Christians--from learned theologians to ordinary artisans, and Anabaptist martyrs to Reformed Christians facing exile--defined belief not merely as an assertion or affirmation but as a continuous, living practice. Thus these voices, raised in song, tell a story of the Reformation that reaches far beyond the transformation from one community of faith to many. With case studies drawn from each of the major confessions of the Reformation--Lutheran, Anabaptist, Reformed, and Catholic-- Singing the Resurrection reveals sixteenth-century belief in its full complexity. Cover Series Singing the Resurrection Copyright Contents List of Figures List of Music Examples Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction 1 The Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting: Medieval Christianity 2 Written in the Heart: Lutherans 3 Walking in the Resurrection: Anabaptists 4 Everywhere in Our Sight: The Reformed 5 Perpetual Light: Catholics Conclusion Bibliography Index