That Divine and Most Excellent Gift

<p>This posthumous compilation of writing by beloved scholar teacher and musician Mark P. Bangert explores how in addition to his other contributions Martin Luther expressed a theological valuation of music that can inspire and inform today's understanding and use of music especially in Christian worship. Luther's preface to <i>Symphoniae iucundae</i> (Delightful Symphonies 1538) presents the clearest explication of this theology. At the time of his death Bangert had composed core components of a book on Luther's preface. Drawing on this work and other writings by Bangert on Luther and music Martin Seltz has edited a collection that pays tribute both to Luther's theology and to Bangert's important body of scholarship.</p>