www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Chant causes depression????!

Well, folks, here is about the stupidest thing I've heard lately. My sister, a charismatic, told me a guy at her church said that according to a study, chant has been known to cause depression in people. My sister attends a Lutheran church, and her and a few others are determined to do away with liturgy in favor of the modernized night club Pentecostal worship. She says, "You chant in your church, don't you?" I try to explain that it's biblical.

On Pascha, when we chant the words "Christos anesti ek nekron," let me tell you, I am not depressed!!, I am in another world, I feel alive and joyful in a way that is hard to explain. On the other hand, I have found that contemporary christian music can make me feel depressed, as it tends to pull emotional strings.

In October, Fr. Peter Gillquist was a guest at our parish, and he explained in detail where our liturgy, our chant, and our incense is based on the Bible. I just don't understand how Protestants, especially charismatics, can be so opposed to liturgy when it is clearly spelled out in the pages of scripture!

Anyway, I was interested in seeing your reactions to this. The validity of this "study" is something I highly doubt.

<<Anyway, I was interested in seeing your reactions to this. The validity of this "study" is something I highly doubt.>>

I agree with you, Jeff. I find the chant in our churches of the Byzantine Tradition, whether Eastern Orthodox or Eastern Catholic, very uplifting and soothing to the soul. While some may feel otherwise, our Services (I am Eastern Orthodox) are never too long for me. It is a time to enjoy a foretaste of Heaven while still on this earth, and, if I am enjoying a foretaste of Heaven, well, it's a place I don't want to soon leave.

Worldly music, OTOH, as is so often employed by the charismatics/Pentecostalists, just jangles my nerves, makes me feel that I am still too much in this world with all its distractions, and makes it difficult for me to concentrate on prayer. Just my two cents.

CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!

OrthodoxEast

I also find that TOTALLY BIZARRE

Who would initiate such a study? The American Psychological Association? I don't think so.

Besides which it flies in the face of clear evidence and the plain facts. Just go to Church and see for oneself!

Moreover, all those people who don't like chant, don't go. So how would they get depressed?

Ask for a copy of the publication wherein the study was published! That should "clear" things up. :rolleyes:

Happy Feast of Santa Lucia (of Syracuse [is that the one that the song is about?])!

Herb

ps: maybe the study concluded "bad chant" or "uninspired chanting" makes people depressed? It certainly make my Priest depressed!

Sounds like a completely idiotic study. Most of the research I've heard about has suggested the opposite - that religious observance - especially chanting of some type - is of benefit to mood. And a lot of mental health practicioners that I have known listen to "chant tapes" (especially Gregorian). I think that it is wonderful, that they are listening to a Mass or Office without fully realizing it. Leaves a door for the Holy Spirit to enter .

And of course anyone who has experienced the Divine Liturgy understands what "being in Heaven" must be like (as much as we can right now, anyway ). About the only way I can see chanting causing depression is if what is being chanted isn't of God.....

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

Glenn

The music was one of the aspects of Eastern liturgy that attracted me to the East. I often resort to chant when I am feeling down and it certainly doesn't make me depressed. As a cantor I hope I'm not causing some major depression by leading chant

Your singing does the opposite for me Subdeacon Randolph
Don

Just waiting for the Protestant "study" that demonstrates that terminal infectious diseases are spread by the Holy Eucharist, or that priestly ordination makes one a child molester... Bob Jones, Fred Phelps, hope you've got some free time!! (p.s. Please don't give me credit for the idea.)

Don't give Fred any ideas - we are sick and tired of his stupid and obscene signs across our town :rolleyes:

Who are Fred Phelps and Bob Jones??

Who are Fred Phelps and Bob Jones??

Yes, chanting in praise to the Lord always really depresses me. Naturally.

ChristTeen287

Jeff, Fred Phelps is an independent Baptist "minister" of a small congregation located in Topeka, Kansas. He is most well known for the main ministry of his congregation, picketing funerals of the famous and not so famous. But Fred will picket any place where he thinks he can get some attention. His main focus in picketing is to protest homosexuality, and anyone with whom he doesn't agree with is labeled as such. He also has a great hatred for Catholicism, which comes through every now and then as well. Fred's congregation consists mainly of his numerous children and their families. Their theology is a strictly predestinarian...basicly, everyone is predestined for hell except for members of his congregation. If his theology is true, you can't help but wonder why he spends his time protesting? We're all going to hell anyway??? Oh well, it takes all kinds in this old world I suppose. Don

Whoever commissioned the study, must have been completely ignorant of the effect that David's harp playing, and no doubt chanting as well, had upon King Saul (cf. 1 Sam. 16:14-23). Jeff, point that out to your sister.

I'd like to see the study. It is possible that they way liturgical chant is actually sung might cause temporary depression. I remembering visiting a parish for Old Calendar Pascha Matins a few years back. The singing was so slow and off key it was more like a funeral liturgy than it was a resurrection celebration. Very depressing. But I doubt it caused any long lasting depression in anyone.

Well, when I listen to chant I really feel that it penetrates my heart in a certain way, I could never find it boring or depressive. Sacred chant pentertates feelings very deeply, and creates a sacred environment, this is why the liturgy would be like a little heaven on earth cause it makes us remember God (I think it was St. Alfons Liguori, a Latin Saint, who said that).

It is normal that Charismatics and people from Protestantism reject this kind of music because it makes us remember God, Charismaticism and Protestantism since its begginings enphasises the human action. Poliphonic and sacred chant inspire something close to horror in some people because they speak of eternity, and eternity implies God�s unalterable law.
Such expressions of chant are dismissed because "they are not for the modern man", though it is interesting that even a non-believer would feel and incredible sensation when they listen to that music or see the splendor of a magnificient cathedral.

Worship according to them, is offered by God to man, the meaning of the liturgical worship is falsified. Their aim is to make what is called �worship� into a wholly human activity, one which human beings quite patently create and control. The vandalization of sacred space itself would prove that men can take what is sacred and render it profane.