We have no shortage of evidence about the importance of song in the ancient world, including written descriptions of music in literature, songs embedded in narratives, standalone hymnic texts, and collections of psalms and hymns. While we can only imagine the melodies and modes of performance, the surviving texts reveal an imaginal world in which the divine and the human were inextricably interwoven. In Greco-Roman antiquity we see how songs of one time and place became an evocative source for later generations to reflect on their particular realities in light of larger forces they saw at work in the world, including in the divine benefactions of their rulers. Early Jewish and Christian psalms and hymns show that their authors had complex ways of reworking traditions and themes to meet the needs of a new era, both religiously and politically. This lecture explores the rich treasury of ancient religious song, looking especially at how songs functioned for the communities that preserved them. We will pay attention to the affective dimensions of ancient songs, their power to shape a community’s perception of reality, and their suitability to serve as vehicles of resistance through the reimagining of earlier images and forms. If we listen carefully, even today we can hear echoes of religion and resistance in the songs of antiquity.
Matthew E Gordley is a scholar of Christianity and Judaism in antiquity who has been researching and writing on the influence and impact of ancient song for more than two decades. His work on early Christian and Jewish psalms and hymns seeks to situate these poetic compositions within their ancient historical and cultural contexts so that they may be more fully appreciated by readers today. His scholarly monographs on the subject include The Colossian Hymn in Context (2007), Teaching through Song in Antiquity: Didactic Hymnody among Geeks, Romans, Jews, and Christians (2011), and New Testament Christological Hymns: Exploring Texts, Contexts, and Significance (2018). His latest book, Social Justice in the Stories of Jesus: The Ethical Challenge of the Parables (2024), uses a similar historical and cultural approach to understand how the stories Jesus told continue to engage and challenge readers to this day. He earned a PhD from the University of Notre Dame and currently serves as Interim Provost and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Carlow University (Pittsburgh, PA), where he also holds a tenured faculty appointment as Professor of Theology.