What's a jazz theologian?

What's a jazz theologian?  I'll add more to this page as time goes on but here's some food for thought...

What is jazz?

Most people think of jazz as music, I think that it is more than music.  Music happens to be the realm in which most of us recognize it but I think that Ralph Ellison was correct when he said that all of American life is "jazz-shaped."  Jazz is more than music.  It is a way of thinking and a way of viewing the world.  It is about freedom within community.  It is a culture, that is, a set of values and norms by which we can experience life in general and faith in particular.  It is about how we know things.  Jazz knowing is a knowledge born out of experience.  It is a knowledge based upon taking proposition and living it.  It becomes truth when it is lived.  Jazz is indigenous to the United States of America. 

What is theology?

The study of God.  The interaction with what God has stooped to reveal to His creation.  Often times codified in books and systems.  Theology is the truth we know about God. 

So what is a jazz theologian?

A jazz theologian is someone who understands that jazz is more than music.  Music is a great place to hear and observe jazz, but jazz is so much more.  Jazz has been expressed in a number of mediums:  poetry, literature, sports and art to name a few.

Fundamental to jazz is Call & Response, syncopation and improvisation.  A jazz theologian takes these concepts and then applies them to following Christ and living out his glorious gospel of the Kingdom of God.

The Library of a Jazz Theologian

The  Holy Bible by God:  There is no substitute for long hours spent pouring over the word of God and letting it pour over us.  Reading it not just for information but for the transformation that it brings.  It truly is alive.  When I was nine years old I began reading the Bible.  I would stay up late devouring it's pages.  Perhaps it was because I didn't have a father and so I couldn't go a day without reading the book my Father in heaven penned.  I even remember waking up mornings with my head laying on my bible for that is how I fell asleep.  Even now, I sometimes go to sleep clutching a copy close to my heart, for it is the very words of God.  Amen...

Free at Last? The Gospel in the African-American Experience by Carl Ellis Jr.  Outside of the Bible, this is the most influential book in my life.  I read it from cover to cover at least twice a year and have done so for over a decade.  First, for the content.  Second, because of what he is doing--Jazz Theology.  It was Ellis that first introduced me to the concept of a jazz theologian and called forth a vision for the potential of what a Joshua Generation of JT's could accomplish for the kingdom.  I am forever grateful to Ellis and his work.  Anything I teach and write on the subject can find its origin in the theories found in the book.  I'm just working on the praxis side of things.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.  It is one of the essential likes to understanding that jazz is more than music.  For what musicians did on the stage, Ellison puts on the page.  Not only is it a great American novel, it is a jazz text.  A friend of mine once suggest that I listen to an audio version...wow.  When you hear it read, you can hear the rythyms and rhymes...the solo's and the bass lines.

A Testament of Hope:  The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., Edited by James M. Washington.  This is your one stop shop for the works of King.  Almost 700 pages of pure gold.

The Beloved Community by Charles Marsh is must read to understand the dream behind the dream of Martin Luther King Jr.  Rich in history and biographical information about key leaders in the movement, Marsh leads the reader through the contours of the orgins and development of the beloved community.  Marsh writes, "There are a million good reasons not to go to church, and yet let us be clear on one thing:  Eleven o'clock Sunday may be the most segregated hour of the week as far as any particular parish goes, but it is the most integrated hour of the week as far as the kingdom goes."

The Making of Kind of Blue:  Miles Davis and His Masterpiece by Eric Nisenson.  In 1959, Miles Davis recorded what would become the best selling jazz album of all time.  Nisenson's book is essential to understanding the why's behind the what.  Kind of Blue was not only a musical breakthrough but a barometer culture.

The Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Idependence--It was once said that The United States has made three original contributions to the world:  Baseball, The Constitution and Jazz.  An understanding of the constituion will lead to a deeper understanding of jazz.  It's contradictions and it's promise of freedom.  Yeah, I know I'm leaving baseball out...it's just too boring!

Missional Church edited by Darrell L. Guder--The question on the back cover says it all, "What would a theology of church look like that took seriously the fact that North America is now itself a mission field?"

Created for community by Stanley J. Grenz.  Most theology books are dominated by propositions.  However, theology is not just something we think, it is something we do.  Even more so it is belief about God lived out with others.  That is why Grenz's work is so important.  The subtitle says it all:  Connecting Christian Belief with Christian Living.

Transforming Mission:  Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission by David J. Bosch.  The jazz theologian needs to be a missiologist.  Bosch's work takes seriously the old adage that, "Mission is the mother of theology."  This book is seminal for anyone seeking to understand the church as mission.  Bosch was using terms like "missional" before they were in vogue.

(check back often as I will update this page regularly)