Strange life

This original piece of music seeks to extend theological aesthetics’ focus on literature and representational arts to the artform of “musicking”. The underlying research position is that music-making is an essential form of human meaning-making beyond or even underlying the duality of verbal communication. The specific research question underlying Strange Life is about the paradox of Christianity’s defence of the value of each human life our belief that a life given can bear fruit, that the blood of martyrs is not shed in vain.

While there is a growing volume of works about music in theology, there is very little research attempting to theologise through music. Through its specific symbolic processes and semiotic patterning of experience and understanding, music can exteriorise aspects of conversion and Christian doctrine in ways that cannot be accessed solely through theoretical reasoning. Strange Life explores the tragedy of the loss of every human life, and the eschatological hope it gives us, in light of the life and thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

This song was produced by Multi-Platinum Award Winning Producer Adrian Hannan at The Song Store, VIC; launched at The Cave Inn, Brisbane, while livestreamed to an international audience from across Australia, Asia, Europe, the USA, and Latin America; and released by Willow Publishing Party Ltd. In June 2022, it was published by Bloomsbury as an intrinsic part of chapter nine on “What is it with Christianity and Martyrdom?” in Suspended God: Music and a Theology of Doubt.

File size over 30 MB.