Another topic that I cover in my class on the Bible and Music is the use of the Bible in children’s songs.
I also had a student make excellent use of a children’s retelling of the biblical account of David and Goliath in crafting a song on the subject. It hadn’t struck me until they did so that this could be a useful technique in the process of trying to create a song about a biblical text. If one isn’t simply setting the precise words of the text, then there is a real value in boiling the text down to its essence, its essential features, and working from there.
On the other hand, there is a tendency for children’s songs and children’s Bibles to eliminate essential material and not merely simplify biblical stories, but to radically transform them and change their meaning in the process.
Either way, children’s songs about the Bible are not taken as seriously as they should be whether as a topic of research on the reception and interpretation of the Bible, as a focus of classroom discussion, or as a place where serious efforts are needed to provide alternatives to songs that misinform or oversimplify in ways that are likely to prove unhelpful and perhaps even unhealthy in the longer term.
Of related interest, Sojourners had an article about a new children’s album by Ellie Holcomb, Sing, Creation Songs.
Academic Minute on how children and adults think differently about religion
The Scandinavian Christian Music Industry and Transatlantic Pentecostalism
Music gets an honorable mention in this post:
Cindy Brandt shared some thoughts on parenting in such a way that children do not grow up to become religious fundamentalists. Children’s songs, I think, have a role to play in that.
See the recap of a conference about music and poetry in the Bible by Richard Rohlfing at Durham University:
Also related to the Bible and music:
How Church History (Re)taught Me the Value of Old Hymns – and Vice Versa
Trying to Sing the Oldest Song
Review of Sound and the Ancient Senses in Bryn Mawr Classical Review
A couple of my past posts on telling Bible stories to children and about one particular song focused on creation:
The video embedded in that post has gone missing, but you can find another one here:
How Children are Led Astray into the Sin of “Biblical Literalism”
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In