The Bible and Music

I never really thought about this difference , but apparently a defining characteristic of a hymn is the organ and it is not necessarily meant for communal settings outside of a place of practice (or at least that is what I thought the professor said). In my opinion though, I never saw a hymn and song on an equal plane – meaning I always saw the term “song” as an umbrella term in which hymn fell under. Arguing between these differences as the professor said is arbitrary because the lines are blurred so often, especially with contemporary Christian music. We then attempted to categorize a few songs and determined that there was a difference between Christmas Carol and Christmas Song. The latter being more commercialized than the first. In general, I just think that putting each song into a category or bucket is moot, like the professor said music is more of spectrum – like light – it blends rather than having defined lines. In addition, I like the professor’s comment that the only thing categories are useful for is talking about things, but they are not just in one category in reality.