I decided to do some research on the Christian religion to learn more about how they use music within their religious practices to express and share their beliefs. I myself am Catholic and I know that some Catholic beliefs in fact overlap with Christain beliefs since they originated in the same place.  According to the textbook, “Within Christianity, there are a variety of chant styles, including Russian Orthodox chant, the Byzantine chant of Greece, Ethiopian Orthodox chant, and Anglican chant.” Christianity was known as the dominant religion of Europe since the 4th century. This is mainly the reason why this religion has many chant styles since they had many religious followers located all over different parts of Europe that spoke different languages. The language was never a problem for religion because it can always be translated. These types of chants were spread through oral tradition and passed through generations of families. This also gave the chants the opportunity to be spread through trade. According to the textbook, “A monk or priest could then bring the chant to a distant community and teach it to the Christians there. This was risky, however, for music in the oral tradition usually changes over time and distance as individual musicians forget how it goes, commit errors, or make intentional alterations.” At the time these chants were being spread through Oral tradition when the Roman Catholic Church was becoming powerful over people in Europe. This led to many religious wars over who was or wasn’t catholic in catholic lands that were ruled by catholic royals. The ideas of Martin Luther impacted the power of the Catholic Church by stating his 95 theses. His main purpose was to write about what was wrong with the Roman Catholic Church. One of his concerns was how the Catholic hierarchy was preventing Christians from experiencing a direct relationship with god. 

A Christain chat that is well known since the late 1700s is “Amazing Grace”. It’s categorized as a Christian hymn written by John Newton. He wrote this song for Christians to sing and express their religious beliefs. It can be expressed as a harmonic singing song that creates a gateway for spiritual experiences. This song is part of the Georgian chants and part of Christianity. This piece of music expressed religious belief because the lyrics can be sung from the perspective of a person expressing how they communicate with god. Often people who follow. religion pray to their god to praise him or thank him, and this song is a perfect example of just that.