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The Jazz Theologian

Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink, tells of a time when he attended a show for an improv comedy group. “They would get up onstage, without any idea whatsoever of what character they would be playing or what plot they would be acting out, take a random suggestion from the audience, and then, without so much…

Kirk Byron Jones in his book, The Jazz of Preaching, tells this story about Mr. marsalis "Wynton Marsalis was playing, "I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You," unaccompanied. At the most dramatic point of his conclusion, someone’s cell phone went off." David Hajdu was present and tells what happened next… " "Marsalis…

What do you say about Wynton? Artistic Director of Jazz at the Lincoln Center; Pulitzer Prize winning author and a jazz genius…a modern day jazz icon. The recording is not great but close your eyes and take a listen…

A few years ago, Rosa Parks was at the church of which I am a part. She was standing in our lobby, along with about 20 other people, when she said, "I’m tired, could I take a seat." I ran all over looking for the perfect chair…at first all I could find was those metal…

So why all this time spent on timing and precision? It determines how we approach God. Jazz is not against timing and precision, but jazz deals with time differently. "In a jazz performance, while every bar of music should take the same amount of ‘clock time’–fill the same ‘period’–within those bars and groups of bars…

So we know that precision is neccessary…especially when it comes to a fine German automobiles. We also desire precision in our relationship with the Lord…wrong thinking about God is a guarantee of wrong living before God. So how do we have precision without the oppression of precision? What is the difference between "doing time" and…

Many of us have heard that the goal of biblical interpretation is precision, that is, to determine the original meaning of the text. What an impossible task! I remember the first time I taught the scriptures after taking an hermeneutics class…I was terrified. Not the kind of terrified that comes with the realization that one…

"In particular, for better or worse, three features of modern clock time decisively shape our lives and our thinking." writes Os Guiness. Feature One: Precision–All of humanity needs to measure time, but with the move from using the the sun an moon to the mechanical clock we shifted "from a sense of periods, as in…

Most often we state the quality of our relationship with God in terms of precision and exactness. "How is your prayer life?" Munutes! I usually think of my relationship with God in terms of minutes. Did I pray more minutes today than yesterday. Have I found the elusive, "Sweet Hour of Prayer." We think of…

One of the major differences between classical and jazz theology has to do one’s relationship to accuracy. It’s been called the "heresy of exactness," by Brad Braxton and the "tyranny of time" by Os Guinness. Whatever you call it, it has had a radical effect on how we view church, preaching and theology. On a…
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