DOI
10.32436/2475-6423.1066
Abstract
This article focuses on the unique dimensions of lived or vernacular Catholicism through the analysis of contemporary congregational music in Hungary. Looking at the musical lives of Hungarian Roman Catholics from the late 1960s to contemporary times can provide us with new understandings of the theological contents and aesthetics, as well as the vernacular religiosity of the community. Christian popular music appeared behind the Iron Curtain relatively early, in 1967 when the first “beat mass” was created and introduced at Budapest. The early Christian popular music sounded astonishingly similar to the songs of the American Folk Mass Movement of the 1960s without any connection between the two phenomena. The Communist dictatorship greatly influenced the ‘visibility,’ the characteristics of Christian popular music, and also its secrecy. Amongst authoritarian, atheistic circumstances, Christian popular music spread underground. The social dimension of this music was, therefore, an underground religious subculture that existed independently and was often prohibited by Church leaders. I give an overview of the reactions of the institutions (state authorities, churches) and persons connected to these authorities (priests, collaborators, secret police informers) and the participants of the emerging grassroots movement and analyze the inner tensions and attitudes of the opposing groups.
Recommended Citation
Povedak, Kinga
(2020)
"Rockin' the Church: Vernacular Catholic Musical Practices,"
Journal of Global Catholicism:
Vol. 4:
Iss.
1, Article 4. p.42-63.
DOI: 10.32436/2475-6423.1066
Available at:
https://crossworks.holycross.edu/jgc/vol4/iss1/4
Included in
Aesthetics Commons, Catholic Studies Commons, Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, Christianity Commons, Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons, Cultural History Commons, Eastern European Studies Commons, European History Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, History of Christianity Commons, History of Religion Commons, Intellectual History Commons, Liturgy and Worship Commons, Other Anthropology Commons, Other International and Area Studies Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Regional Sociology Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons, Slavic Languages and Societies Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Social History Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons, Sociology of Religion Commons