Subject Area
Music, Religion
Abstract
Music has always been central to the lives of Black people. The Black religious experience is even more profound when expressed through music. It is therefore no happenstance that music is of great import as pertains to the spiritual lives of Black people, including Black Catholics. Faith is expressed through culture. It is through culture that the faith is realized and known. In this, is the essence of inculturation.
Anscar Chupungco states that if not inculturated, the liturgy of the local Church will remain at the periphery of people’s cultural experience. For this reason, it is imperative that Afrodiasporic music be included in the liturgy for the faith formation of Black Catholics, as an act of hospitality and liturgical justice. In this thesis, I use my recent Mass setting, Voice of My People, to support various assertions made in this thesis. Multiple methodologies—including musicological, historical, ethnographic, and artist intervention—are used to support various hypotheses pertaining to inculturation, multiculturalism, and liturgical justice. Ethnographic research was conducted at six parishes across the United States yielding quantitative and qualitative data. As the United States becomes more ethnically diverse, so too, must the American Catholic Church respond by becoming more welcoming to people of various cultures.
This thesis situates Black Catholic music as an important facet of Black sacred music more broadly in a nuanced conversation about Black theology and spirituality within a Catholic context.
Degree Date
Summer 8-5-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
D.P.M.
Department
Perkins School of Theology
Advisor
Marcell Silva Steuernagel
Number of Pages
354
Format
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Recommended Citation
Holland, Marvand Roger II, "Voice of My People: An Expression of Welcome and Liturgical Justice for Afrodiasporic People in North American Catholicism" (2025). Doctor of Pastoral Music Projects and Theses. 20.
https://scholar.smu.edu/theology_music_etds/20
Included in
Ethnomusicology Commons, Musicology Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons
