CONTEMPORARY PRAISE SONGS IN WORSHIP CULTURE

Abstract

The article offers a theoretical and analytical interpretation of the phenomenon of contemporary praise songs within the framework of worship culture as a representative form of sacred communication characteristic of Evangelical Protestantism. The author conceptualizes worship music as an integrative spiritual and cultural phenomenon operating at the intersection of theological discourse, aesthetic practices, and sociocommunicative processes. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the musical component of worship as a mechanism for modeling collective religious experience, encoding doctrinal meanings, and constructing normative frameworks of Christian worship. It is argued that in the context of a post-secular society and the growing prevalence of mediatized forms of religiosity, contemporary praise songs gain significance as a means of identity construction, symbolic organization of sacred space, and spiritual mobilization of faith communities. The functional diversity of worship music is outlined, including its capacity to serve as a religious “translator” between transcendent content and emotionally generative states within the audience. The study emphasizes the shift from the theological essence of musical worship toward its aestheticized form, which may lead to the reduction of profound sacred meaning. Based on a comprehensive analysis, the research concludes that worship songs in contemporary religious environments perform therapeutic, mobilizing, and integrative functions, contributing to the restoration of spiritual authenticity and enabling the adaptation of Christian communities to communicative challenges of a globalized world. Worship music is thus understood as a unique communicative code capable of structuring sacred experience, maintaining theological integrity, and sustaining the collective memory of faith.