Sacred Music as Education of Souls: The Work of Stevan St. Mokranjac as Contextualized Theology – At the Occasion of the Centennial Anniversary of His Death –
Sacred Music as Education of Souls: The Work of Stevan St. Mokranjac as Contextualized Theology – At the Occasion of the Centennial Anniversary of His Death –

Summary/Abstract: From the outset, the Christian hymnody occupied an important role in Church’s worship. The hymnody served the purpose of facilitating worship by virtue of its esthetic potential. The second, and equally, important purpose of the hymnody is didactic; namely, the theological content of the hymns served as a powerful instructional tool in the church’s doctrine. The two purposes of the Orthodox hymnody are evident in the work of Stevan St. Mokranjac’s work on preserving and enriching the sacred music of the Serbian Orthodox Church with original choral arrangements. I argue that Mokranjac’s opus of sacred music of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which is marked by a fortunate balance between didactic power and restrained esthetic sensibility, is a noteworthy illustration of the successful process of contextualizing theology, as a means of augmented missionary efficiency.

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