A Fresh Look at Handel's Messiah | CT Books

[Also: Following the Bouncing Balls of Post-Reformation History] Also: Following the Bouncing Balls of Post-Reformation History | [View online]( [ChristianityToday.org]( [CT Books newsletter]( Tuesday, December 05, 2017 A Fresh Look at Handel's Messiah Every year, my church's Easter Sunday service culminates with a rendition of the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah. It's always amusing to observe the congregation struggling to follow along with some of the trickier sections. (And observing is about all I can manage, since I'm typically pretty mystified myself!) As the bulletin pages keep flipping, you hear voices gradually losing steam and dying out, until just about the only people left singing are in the choir. But we sure do belt it out at the beginning, when everyone's singing along confidently to a tune they know by heart. As Terry Glaspey notes in his [review]( of [Messiah: The Composition and Afterlife of Handel's Masterpiece](, by Jonathan Keates, our very familiarity can keep us from appreciating how revolutionary this piece of music was at the time of its creation. "For all its theological profundity and glorious music," writes Glaspey, "Messiah was not an immediate overwhelming success. In fact, as Keates reminds us, after its Dublin premiere it received a great deal of criticism when the performances moved to London. Some of the pious felt that it was not appropriate for Scripture to be treated in this manner as part of a dramatic composition, especially one performed in a secular concert hall. But Handel had no qualms about taking the sacred into the secular sphere." Following the Bouncing Balls of Post-Reformation History For my money, the Russian dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn has always had the best explanation for the sorry state of our world today, or any day. In his masterwork, The Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn put his finger on the signature error of Soviet revolutionary thinking: "Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts." That famous story about G. K. Chesterton answering the question "What's wrong with the world?" with a letter announcing "I am" gets at much the same point. As do innumerable passages from Scripture. (To quote Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?") This is one reason, apart from an understandable Protestant pride, I've always been skeptical about attempts to blame Martin Luther and the Reformation for much of what ails the modern world, as though a contentedly Catholic culture wouldn't suffer from its own share of injustices and idolatries. One of the scholars best known for this Reformation-wary line of argument is Brad Gregory, a historian from Notre Dame and author of [The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society](. In time for this year's observation of the Reformation's 500th anniversary, Gregory has adapted his thesis for a popular audience in [Rebel in the Ranks: Martin Luther, the Reformation, and the Conflicts That Continue to Shape Our World](. Brad Littlejohn, president of the [Davenant Institute](, an organization devoted to church renewal, [reviewed]( this latest work for CT online. The book's "central flaw," according to Littlejohn, is "Gregory's aspiration to give a history of unintended consequences. The idea here is that history can be mapped out as a series of actions and reactions, many of them unintended. You meant to hit the cue ball into the green 6-ball and angle it into the corner pocket, and perhaps you did; but along the way, the 6-ball accidentally bumped the black 8-ball into the side-pocket. "Let's assume for a moment that this is an apt way of describing history. Still, there is a major problem. There is no first hit of the cue-ball that can be singled out, or rather, if there is, it lies right back with Adam and Eve. Any attempt to tell the story of actions and reactions during a particular segment of history is bound to start somewhere in the middle, with a certain arbitrariness: The balls were bouncing around wildly already, but let's start the narrative with this one particular collision." [Matt Reynolds](mailto:ctbooks@ChristianityToday.com), Associate Editor, Books Christianity Today To reply to this newsletter: ctbooks@christianitytoday.com Add newsletter@lists.christianitytoday.com to your address book. [Featured Articles]( [Handel's Messiah: A Brilliant Blend of Transcendence and Transgression]( How the composer (and his lesser-known collaborator) wedded Scripture and music in daring new ways. Terry Glaspey [Don't Blame Martin Luther for the Evils of the Modern World]( Brad Gregory follows the bouncing balls of post-Reformation history—but loses sight of who set them in motion. Brad Littlejohn More from Christianity Today [Forks & Spoons - A Simple Evangelism Strategy [Gospel Life Podcast]]( Start each week with this encouragement to show and share the love of Jesus. [Messier Than Retail: Why We Need More From Church Than Excellent Customer Service]( We can get excellent customer service from strangers. A great church experience should be about relationships. [Top Eight Historically Incorrect Christmas Songs]( How to be a loudmouth know-it-all at your carol sing. 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