aquinas and the three problems of music

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AQUINAS AND THE THREE PROBLEMS OF MUSIC

AN EVALUATION OF THE SUMMA THEOLOGIAE SECUNDA SECUNDAE Q. 91

___________________

A Paper

Presented to

Dr. Sirilla

Franciscan University of Steubenville

___________________

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Course

THE345A Philosophy for Theology

___________________

by

John Brodeur

December 2010

Box #217



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AQUINAS AND THE THREE PROBLEMS OF MUSIC

AN EVALUATION OF THE SUMMA THEOLOGIAE SECUNDA SECUNDAE Q. 91, 2

Throughout Western Civilization, the development of musical philosophy has led to

the rise and fall of many different musical genres – and indeed the rise and fall of various

cultures and world-views. The dramatic relationship between music and Christianity is an

ongoing drama which is governed by conflicting regulations and freedoms, oftentimes very

difficult to practically apply. Over the centuries, there have been numerous characters that have

helped shape a proper understanding of what music is and how it ought to be used in relation to

the Christian life – and more generally – the life of virtue. St. Thomas Aquinas, by no means the

least of these, is a very influential theorist in the Catholic tradition, not so much because of any

exhaustive treatment on the matter of music, but because of his innovative explanations and the

unexplored ramifications of his claims. Aquinas helps set in motion the resolution of three great

theological obstacles to music present throughout the course of Western life and thought: pagan

associations of music in the ancient world, the conflict between spirituality and immersion in

sense experience, and a certain tension or competition between musical art and word.1

Summary of ST 2-2, Q. 91, 2: Whether God should be praised with song?

As to the question of whether God should be praised with song, Aquinas settles upon

the affirmative due to the tradition of St. Ambrose who, according to St. Augustine‘s

Confessions, established singing in the Church of Milan. Aquinas then answers that ―the praise

of the voice is necessary in order to arouse man‘s devotion towards God‖ – a claim just

1 Viladesau, p.28



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established in the preceding article. Music in the act of praise, Aquinas asserts, is useful for

inciting weaker souls to the feeling of devotion by means of delighting the ears.

Five objections are then given reply. The first objection concerns the instructive in

Col. 3:16: ―Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles‖

which is interpreted in the Platonic tradition to mean that the canticles St. Paul is referring to are

spiritual but not corporal (i.e., not sung with the lips). Aquinas replies by asserting that even

corporal canticles can be spiritual if they arouse spiritual devotion.

The second objection raised is on the authority of St. Jerome in his commentary on

Ephesians 5:19 where he says: ―God is to be sung not with the voice but with the heart.‖ Aquinas

replies by putting Jerome‘s commentary in a larger context to show how the Fathers of the

Church did not reject singing as such, but rather its abuse: namely, the theatrical style which

sought to show off and provoke pleasure rather than incite devotion.

The third objection is a decree of St. Gregory the Great which commands that the

ministers of the altar not sing. The objection raised calls to mind the universality of praise and

the conflict of this restriction upon the hierarchy. Aquinas replies that teaching and preaching is

a more excellent way of arousing men to devotion than singing, and that this priority does not

eliminate the use of song in its proper place.

The fourth objection concerns the traditional restriction of the Church upon musical

instruments which belong to the Old Law. Similarly, the objection holds that singing, as

referenced in Psalm 32, is an order exclusive to the Old Law. Aquinas replies with Aristotle‘s

poetics that musical instruments move the soul to pleasure rather than create a good disposition

within it. He further states that in the Old Law, instruments were employed as figures and types

of the New Law and because the people were less spiritually developed. Aquinas thus

differentiates song from instrumental music in its usefulness to incite devotion.

The fifth objection is by far the most excellent objection. After reaffirming that

praise of the heart is more important than praise of the lips, it asserts that the technicality of the

music hinders the praise of the heart in the case of the singers and that the complexity of the



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chants lend to an incomprehensibility which hinders the praise of all who listen. Aquinas replies

that if ever the soul of a singer is distracted, it is because the singer‘s purpose is to elicit pleasure

rather than devotion, but if the singer sings for the purpose of devotion, he pays more attention to

the words. The listeners, he continues, need not hear what is sung to understand that it is sung

for God‘s glory; and that, he concludes, is enough to arouse devotion.

Critical Evaluation

To properly evaluate Aquinas, it is necessary both to understand the tradition of

music which preceded him – beginning with Plato – and the prevailing modern solutions to the

problems he confronted – especially as expressed by Cardinal Ratzinger. Thus, the following

evaluation will be largely chronological and will address different but interrelated problems in

their logical succession, beginning with pagan associations in the ancient world.

The earliest influential music theory was derived from Greek philosophy which

attributed a dual power to music: the power to arouse a Bacchic delirium, releasing previously

repressed unconscious forces, and also the power to prevent and stop emotional outbursts,

leading people back to a state of tranquility. Music was also attributed with the power to

produce new emotions which could persuade the listener to perform certain actions and

simultaneously dissuade him from engaging in others; thus, music was closely associated with

ethics. Each musical mode was characterized by a certain psychic state: Ionian and Mixed

Lydian modes brought relaxation, the Dorian mode brought virility and courage, the Phrygian

mode brought tranquility and productivity, and the Mixed Lydian was not to be considered for

respectable women. These theories were described most poignantly in Plato‘s Republic and in

Aristotle‘s Poetics.

2

In the Early Christian Church, a polemic against music appeared in the latter part of

the second century, was intensified in the third, and became commonplace in the fourth. The

2 Eco, 132-133.



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which wasn’t pagan. It was commonly held that the music prescribed in the Torah for Jewish

ritual had been an accommodation by God to the weakness of his covenanted people, much like

the permission for divorce in the Law of Moses. This dichotomy of law and gospel is clearly

illustrated in the fourth objection in question 91, article 2, where Aquinas explicitly puts all

instrumental music under the category of ―the law.‖ Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger poignantly

describes this phenomenon in his book Feast of Faith: ―there is a one-sidedly ‗spiritual‘

understanding of the relationship between the Old and New Testaments, between law and

gospel.‖9

The interpretation of scripture which references music, most especially in the Psalter,

became strikingly allegorical. Instruments were interpreted as representing powers of the soul

and the mind. This is why Pseudo Origen writes that when the psalmist exhorts the People of

God to ―Praise him in the sound of the trumpet,‖ he interprets the trumpet to be a type of the

contemplative mind.10 This practice of allegorically interpreting musical passages of scripture

was practiced as a sort of inter-biblical exegesis – especially when they were paired with verses

like Amos 5:23: ―Away from me with the noise of your songs; the playing of your harps I do not

wish to hear" or even Isaiah 5:12: ―they have lyre and harp, timbrel and flute and wine at their

feasts; but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord.‖ Thus, the Early Church grew increasingly

more antagonistic toward instrumental music. The severity became so intense that the Canons of

Basil of the fourth century prescribed that a lector who insisted upon accompanying a chant with

a stringed instrument should be excommunicated.11

The dichotomy between law and gospel was further intensified by a similar

dichotomy between the flesh and the spirit, which owed its prominence in the Christian

9 Ratzinger, 106.

10 Viladesau, 16.

11 Viladesau, 17.



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community largely from a Platonic reading of St. Paul. 12 ―Earthly‖ music as associated with the

flesh was juxtaposed with ―real‖ music – which was celestial, spiritual, and inaudible.13 Thus,

for the early Church Fathers, the essence of music was separable from sound, 14 the essence being

part of the realm of true forms. This essence of music, something more like proportion, was not

perceived by the lower senses but only by the heart and the intellect – without the distracting

sensual quality of audible sound.15 The theory of an ―inaudible essence‖ of music was also

greatly influenced by Boethius‘ work (a developed theory of both Plato and Aristotle)

concerning the music of the spheres in which he extensively discussed musical proportions

holding the fabric of the universe together. St. Albert the Great, Aquinas‘ teacher, was the first

to break with this tradition, but even he retained the traditional ethical theory of music: that

music does exert an influence over man for good or for evil.16 Such a distinction between the

essence of music and its fleshy components beg the question as to whether the beautiful sounds

might simply be a distraction or escape – a way of taming the religious imperative into a mere

aesthetic object.17

Here, it is both ―interesting and instructive‖18 to read how St. Augustine agonized

over music in the Church. His is the prime example of the Platonic struggle between spirit and

flesh. Although the sound of chanting at Milan was partially responsible for opening his heart to

conversion,19 the spiritualizing theology of his time ascribed the senses to the Old Testament, the

12 Viladesau, 15

13 Viladesau, 17.

14 Viladesau, 18.

15 Viladesau, 17.

16 Guettler, 8

17 Viladesau, 14.

18 Viladesau, 18.

19 Guettler, 8.



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old man, and the old world.20 How could the sound of music lead him to a conversion of heart?

Had they somehow aided his recognition of the essence of music? With all these uncertainties,

he concluded that a ―song can excite a feeling of devotion and a longing for God by the

‗unknown secret correspondence‘ of music with our spiritual affects, but he presumes that to

dwell in that feeling, without attention to the words, is a distraction from the purpose of

prayer.‖21 Thus, Augustine is still only considering music as a medium of the word and not as an

end in itself. Instrumental music is not only suspect, but left entirely unconsidered.

When Aquinas finally enters into this great historical struggle, St. Albert‘s influence

is made particularly manifest. There are many nuances in Aquinas‘ writing, and in small yet

significant gestures, he begins challenging the old Platonic dichotomy. For one, Aquinas implies

that there is nothing inherently incompatible in the Christian liturgy with instruments, but that it

is rather a problem of association.22 In this, Aquinas makes room for the realization that

connotations and associations which are applied to music do not necessarily remain constant,23

and indeed history itself bears witness to this truth: ―As Christianity adapted to new cultures and

established itself as the universal religion of Western Europe, the older scruples arising from the

association of music with pagan Roman and Greek worship became less relevant.‖24 Monsignor

Schuler explains how this took place: ―as paganism declined, generations grew up which had

never experienced pagan rites and for which the associations of these instruments with sinful

festivities did not exist.‖25 Further evidence that associations can change is demonstrated in

20 Ratzinger, 110.

21 Viladesau, 22-23.

22 Guettler, p.11.

23 Guettler, 11.

24 Viladesau, 20.

25 Guettler, 11-12.



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Roman chant itself, whose melodies began as adaptations of Mediterranean folk songs.26 By the

time of Augustine, their secular connotations were so completely replaced by sacred association

that they were responsible for moving his heart to conversion. During the Renaissance, secular

songs of the Middle-Age troubadours sounded like hymns, and even later madrigals sounded like

motets.27 The only difference can be found in the texts.

In addition to broadening this horizon and eventually making it possible for the

Church to embrace instruments in its liturgical practices, Aquinas also gives a seal of approval to

a kind of music in which the word is completely subordinated to musical composition. In his

reply to objection 5, he completely abandons the conclusion of Augustine that the listener must

always be attentive to the words of a chant lest he sinfully lapse into a mere enjoyment of it. 28

Instead, he allows for the very real possibility that the listener can be moved to greater devotion

even in complete ignorance of what is being sung if they are thus inspired by a holy intention and

sincere prayer on the part of the singer. Thus, it becomes possible to sing in a language which

may be unfamiliar to the congregation, or to sing in elaborate polyphonic textures in which the

words may become less easy to follow. In effect, Aquinas opens the door to the consideration of

music (the existence of melody, harmony, and rhythm independent from text) as its own kind of

language, a comprehensible language of the heart.

However, Aquinas does not simply make allowances for all music done with a right

intention. In his Summa Theologiae, he extends the discussion on music to a chapter devoted to

temperance (II-II, Q. 141, 4) where he stresses moderation and restraint even more urgently than

Aristotle. This is because Aquinas does not see music as an end in itself, but rather as a means

toward the ultimate goal of contemplation.29 Fr. Basil Cole discusses how

26 Guettler, 11-12.

27 Guettler, 12.

28 Viladesau, 24.

29 Clogan, 9.



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―As music lovers grow in the ability to distinguish beautiful music, they are able to turn

the aesthetic experience of music into a preparation for contemplation of other things thatmay answer certain important questions regarding the meaning of life. Likewise, the

virtue of music appreciation will lead them to know when to get refreshment from music

and when someone feels he is becoming too attached to this pleasure and so must

moderate its use in the overall life of virtue.‖30

For Aquinas, contemplation can mean many things. It can mean thinking about and loving God,

or from a natural perspective, it can mean ―a simple gaze upon the truth.‖31 Happiness consists

largely through the contemplative act, most especially when infused by the Holy Spirit, but even

by one‘s efforts alone when it does not interfere with a person‘s responsibilities. Thus, it can be

said that ―to the extent that music br ings one to the taste and joys of contemplative activity and

life, it leads one to the purpose of the virtuous life.‖ 32 In this context, it is nonetheless easy to

sympathize with the emphasis on vocal music: how much is gained in contemplating beautiful

music if it is allied with poetry containing extra-musical truth either from faith or reason!33

At the time of Aquinas, however, medieval song was essentially religious and only

secondarily aesthetic in character. It was not primarily intended to be art, but served the practical

end of pedagogy,34 giving natural priority to the text. Despite this priority, its divine task

naturally fostered an artistic character.35 Because God is both the True and the Beautiful, it is

easy to understand how the Christian expression of divine revelation is most effectively

30 Cole

31 ST , II-II, q. 180, a. 3 ad 1.

32 Cole

33 Cole

34 Ratzinger, 111.

35 Eco, 255.



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communicated in an aesthetic way. Indeed, this phenomenon is nowhere more profoundly

observed than in the liturgy, where its character as prayer impels it in the direction of art. 36

If Aquinas‘ treatment of music is taken in a strict theoretical sense, it might seem very

utilitarian and unconcerned with the artistic.37 However, it must be observed that Aquinas‘

writings are not marked by a disdain for aesthetic experience but by an honest acknowledgment

of it.38 For Aquinas, music appears to be the art most connected with the aesthetic and pleasure.39

In music, the aesthetic itself is pleasurable; it stimulates not only the pleasure of the ear but the

delight of the mind,40 and this realization comes close to the ―unknown secret correspondence‖

which Augustine refers to, especially in context of the ethical power music contains. Music thus

has the power to influence both the mind and the heart – the intellect and the will. Kevin Wall,

O.P. brilliantly describes how morality, thought, and art – all especially represented in sacred

vocal music – converge upon the same terminal goal which is at once the Good, the True, and the

Beautiful. He makes a bold assertion that virtue and contemplation (corresponding with the

Good and the True respectively), are furthered and fostered by properly understood aesthetic

activity. In aesthetic experience, he claims, man can achieve a sense of rest which outdoes both

virtue and contemplation, and from which both draw strength:

What contemplation on the way to self-possession shares of its quality is insight but thatinsight contains the knowledge that the distance yet to be covered is infinite. This leaves

it restless. Morality is similarly restless since it is not brought to rest in the possession of

36 Overath, 79.

37 Eco, 131.

38 Eco, 135

39 Eco, 130.

40 Cole



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the ultimate good. Aesthetic experience alone has the sense of rest of that possession, the

sense of satisfaction and being at an end.41

This satisfaction, properly understood by faith and enjoyed with temperance both consoles man

in his religious tasks and spurs him on all the more toward Beauty itself, mirrored by the

contemplation of faith. The aesthetic thus strengthens the natural power of concentration on

spiritual things.42 This type of pleasure derived from harmony of sound, a pleasure which is

simultaneously sensible and intellectual, is not only not sinful (as Augustine feared it could be),

but one of the prerogatives which make humans superior to the rest of creation. 43 Humans are

spiritual creatures, but not merely spirits trapped in the body; they are a composite of body and

soul as Aquinas himself testifies. The significance of Christ‘s own body bears witness to this.

Thus, the difficulty which Platonic thought placed upon the theory of music can be

definitively resolved in an incarnational anthropology. God himself took on flesh, and when

matter and spirit were joined in the God-Man, all matter was sanctified. It thereupon became

helpful for man that matter be used to give God greater honor and glory. 44 In the truest sense of

the word, ―spiritualization‖ is not simply an opposition to the senses, but a drawing near to the

Lord who ―is the Spirit‖ (2 Corinthians 3:17). The body is included in this action.45 In

retrospect, Ratzinger admits that the Church Fathers were obliged to make concessions to

Platonic spiritualization beyond what is ultimately appropriate from the viewpoint of

41 Wall, 4-5.

42 Cole

43 Eco, 134.

44 Guettler, 10.

45 Ratzinger, 108.



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Christianity,46 but as members of the Mystical Body of Christ and through the indwelling of the

Holy Spirit, man now renders glory to God with the Word Made Flesh 47 who for all eternity

remains incarnate; Christ does not divest himself of the flesh, but forevermore gives himself to

humanity as the God-Man. Analogously, music is connected to the liturgy as matter to spirit,

and music, as the matter, must be sanctified by the Word becoming Flesh. It must be

spiritualized in order to become a canticum novum48 – a song of the New Testament, the new

man, and the new world.

To simply deny the senses in order to achieve this is to renounce man‘s bodily nature,

a renunciation of the fullness of creation. Proper spiritualization involves transforming the music

through a process of death and resurrection in which it is taken up into the Spirit. This is why

the Church has been consistently critical of ethnic music. It simply cannot be allowed

untransformed into the sanctuary.49 Instead of moving minds and hearts to things above, its

character impedes true devotion by its close association with the things of this world. Despite all

its potential for good, music, when linked with a major philosophy of life which is antithetical to

a life of virtue, is ultimately destructive.50 When its message is antithetical, its melody, harmony,

and rhythm share in the negative influence by association, and over time, the negative influence

of such music can undermine felt and reasoned convictions 51 in much the same way as good

music can reinforce them. This music of negative influence bears striking resemblance to the

46 Ratzinger, 108.

47 Guettler, 10.

48 Guettler, 10.

49 Feats of Faith, 118.

50 Cole

51 Cole



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pagan music of old insofar as it endeavors to elicit an ecstasy of the senses without seeking to

elevate them into the spirit.52 Instead of purifying the senses, it acts as a drug or anesthetic, 53

making the listeners numb to the life that is Good, the message of Truth, and the proportion of

what is truly Beautiful.

Thus, liturgical music must be humble54 and docile to what is most Good, True, and

Beautiful – and to the prescriptions necessary to purify it. It must die to its own artistic value

and rise as a true means of edification. Without this purification, how can it hope to elevate the

senses into the spirit? How can the faithful comprehend its purpose of devotion? Creation must

become the instrument of the spirit, and the spirit must become organized sound in material

creation.55 Even Cardinal Ratzinger acknowledges the greater difficulty of achieving this with an

instrument, for ―where an instrument is concerned, there is a greater possibility of alienation

from the spirit than in the case of the voice.‖ 56 However, in either case, vocal or instrumental, it

is acknowledged that music in itself is neither sacred nor secular until is made so either by

association or transformation.57 There are no particular chords or rhythm patterns which are

essentially sacred. It is made such by association with a specific occasion or purpose, with a

sacred text, with that which is set apart, with what is truly art, and with a particular tradition.58

52 Ratzinger, 118.

53 Ratzinger, 119.

54 Ratzinger, 120.

55 Ratzinger, 119.

56 Ratzinger, 121.

57 Schuler, 7-12.

58 Guettler, 12.



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Above all, the most important characteristic of sacred music for Aquinas is its

―intention,‖ in the Latin sense meaning a movement toward God.59 Elsewhere, he says that

―sometimes this ‗intention,‘ by which the soul is carried toward God, is so intense that the mind

forgets everything else.‖60 Thus, Aquinas allows for a broader meaning of ―mind,‖ which, as has

already been mentioned, allows sacred music to function apart from the meditation on what is

explicitly, verbally communicated.61 This sense of music‘s ability to function apart from

comprehensible language was foreshadowed by Augustine who spoke of jubilation: a sound of

joy without words: ―What is it to sing in jubilation [Ps. 32:3]? To be unable to understand, to

express in words, what is sung in the heart. ...The jubilus is something which signifies that the

heart labors with what it cannot utter. …the heart rejoices without words, and the great expanse

of joy has not the limits of syllables. (In Ps. XXXII, ii, S. I, 8).‖62 ―We cannot say, and yet

cannot be silent either. What are we to do, employing neither speech nor silence? We ought to

rejoice! Jubilatio. Shout out your heart's delight in wordless jubilation.‖63 Thus, what most fully

transforms music is this wordless joy: a deep, heartfelt expression of faith which shapes the

melody, guides the rhythm, and enriches the harmony in ways that no secular standard could

dictate.

59 Viladesau, 22-23.

60 ST , II-II, q. 83. a. 13, c.

61 Viladesau, 27.

62 Viladesau, 23

63 Guettler, 9.



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Josef Pieper, a Thomistic philosopher, explains that such basic expressions, by their

very nature, exist before and beyond speech64: consider the sincerity of a baby‘s cry or the

inflection of the voice when it is sorrowful. Thus Pieper describes music first and foremost as

―as non-verbal articulation of weal and woe; wordless expression of man's intrinsic dynamism of

self-realization, a process understood as man's will in all its aspects, as love.‖65 To completely

ignore this articulation, this language sui generis66, is to remain inconsiderate of music‘s ability to

communicate apart from comprehensible text; an ability which Aquinas affirms and ratifies in

the reply to his fifth objection. Non-verbal music represents the movement of praise which

transcends understanding, knowing, and doing – an ascent which ―draws man away from what is

opposed to God...leads us and others to a sense of reverence…and awakens the inner man.‖67

Harmonies sung well by those who authentically praise create an atmosphere of piety which

moves the bystanders to an interior disposition of love and adoration.68 Cardinal Ratzinger

beautifully captures Aquinas‘ enthusiasm toward this environment of devotion:

―Here, delight in the Lord is felt to be meaningful and beautiful in itself; joy in sharedpraise of him, the awareness, through celebratory music-making, that God is worthy of

worship — this is self-evident, it needs no theories. By quoting from the psalms, Thomas

is in fact saying Yes to that joy which expresses itself and in doing so unites those who

participate (and this includes particularly those who ―listen‖); this expressed joymanifests itself as the presence of the glory which is God: in responding to this glory, it

actually shares in it.‖69

64 Guettler, 9.

65 Guettler, 9.

66 Overath, 80.

67 Ratzinger, 116.

68 Eco, 132.

69 Ratzinger, 114.



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Aquinas thus recognizes the indescribable value of music: the power of melody and harmony to

soothe the souls of believers, and the music‘s own capacity to create a mental disposition

appropriate for receiving and contemplating the words which accompany it.70

Nevertheless, since the liturgy of the incarnate Word is specifically Word-oriented, 71

this power which music has as a language of the heart must never allow psalms and canticles to

be sung in such a way that the words are not properly attended to. Spoken words take on entirely

different meanings according to the tone of voice used to say them, and likewise music amplifies

the text which carries it,72 but music is not a language of absolute communication.73 The text,

when present, specifies the music and engages the listener in a more focused contemplative

activity, especially sacred compositions which involve matters of faith.

As for all the technical skill required to coordinate a full expression of text, the only

honest reply would be to admit that it can, and often does distract the singer from the praise of

the heart.74 However, as Aquinas himself asserts, this need not be the case. The singer must

persevere through long and challenging practices; he must take time to contemplate the texts on

his own; he must strive to be as proficient with the music as he can, so that during the liturgy, he

may effectively pray what he has already technically mastered. Unlike other arts, music requires

living human beings who act as artistically trained interpreters. Thus, no purely external

performance, even though it be technically flawless, can ever be worthy of the liturgy. It must

have ―intention‖ – the most critical component of all music:

70 Clogan, 39.

71 Ratzinger, 120.

72 Guettler, 7.

73 Guettler, 11

74 Viladesau, 22.



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―Liturgical music presupposes praying singers and singing persons who pray. In the

ministry of liturgical music, therefore, Musica sacra which has arisen out of the faith andthe spirit of the liturgy actually becomes a supra-temporal language which speaks, prays,

interprets and proclaims all the more vigorously, the more its interpreters not merely

mouth it, but also bear it in their hearts. In short, the effectiveness of Musica sacra also

depends upon the degree to which its interpreters are fitted for recreating it in the realsense of that term, and for making it into a living language.‖75

Conclusion

In his brief yet provocative consideration as to whether God should be praised with

song, Aquinas rightfully concludes that He should. Although there remains much Platonic

influence in Aquinas‘ approach to music, he makes a number of assertions which break the mold

of Platonic spiritualization and make room for further insight and development. His most

prominent contributions are 1) that association is the cause of restrictive norms, 2) that corporal

canticles can be spiritual, 3) that sacred music can be efficacious without textual comprehension.

These insights constitute a groundbreaking theology of music which, through a proper

understanding of the human person and his relation to an incarnate God, allow for a more self-

evident use of music, particularly within the liturgical context

75 Overath, 79-80.



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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cole, Basil. ―Music and Spirituality: To the Tune of St. Thomas Aquinas.‖ IgnatiusInsight.http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2008/bcole_musicspirit_oct08.asp

(accessed November 16, 2010).

Clogan, Paul Maurice, ed. Medievalia et Humanistica: Studies in Medieval and

Renaissance Culture. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1997.

Eco, Umberto. The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas. Translated by Hugh Bredin.

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988.

Guettler, Amy E. ―Music as Prayer,‖ in Sacred Music 122 (Fall 1995):6-12.

Overath, Johannes. ―The Meaning of Musica Sacra and its Nobility,‖ in Crvx Et

Cithara. Germany: Robert A. Skeris, 1983.

Ratzinger, Joseph. The Feast of Faith. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986.

Schuler. ―The Sacred and the Secular in Music,‖ in Sacred Music 112 (Summer

1985): 7-12.

Viladesau, Richard. Theology and the Arts: Encountering God through Music, Art,

and Rhetoric. Mahwah: Paulist Press, 2000.

Wall, Kevin. A Classical Philosophy of Art: the Nature of Art in the Light of

Classical Principles. District of Columbia: University Press, 1982.

aquinas and the three problems of music

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