Sydney-based ethnomusicologist and BFE member Dr Muriel E. Swijghuisen Reigersberg has co-edited a volume entitled Making Congregational Music Local in Christian Communities Worldwide, which is due to be released by Routledge on 9th March 2018. Congratulations Muriel!

Making Congregational Music Local in Christian Communities Worldwide explores the ways that congregational music-making is integral to how communities around the world understand what it means to be ‘local’ and ‘Christian’. Showing how locality is produced, negotiated, and performed through music-making, this book draws on case studies from every continent that integrate insights from anthropology, ethnomusicology, cultural geography, mission studies, and practical theology. Four sections explore a central aspect of the production of locality through congregational music-making, addressing the role of historical trends, cultural and political power, diverging values, and translocal influences in defining what it means to be ‘local’ and ‘Christian’. This book contends that examining musical processes of localization can lead scholars to new understandings of the meaning and power of Christian belief and practice.

For more information and to purchase Muriel's co-edited volume, click on this link to the CRC Press website.