About Us

Artistic Theologian is a resource ministry published by the School of Church Music and Worship at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Since 2012, we have published a nationally-recognized scholarly journal of worship and ministry arts. In 2020 we expanded to include resources that aid worship pastors and music ministers understand and implement local church worship that is biblically faithful, musically excellent, and ministry focused.

Editorial Council

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Joseph Crider

Dean, SWBTS School of Church Music and Worship

Joseph R. Crider is the Dean of the School of Church Music and Worship at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

With 30 years of ministry and academic experience, Crider is a frequent speaker and clinician at worship conferences and churches. He has written several articles on worship and a book entitled, Uzzah’s Dead: A Call to Scripture-Guided Worship is forthcoming. His passion is in the area of training the next generation of worship leaders and encouraging pastors and worship leaders to embrace the Bible as their guide for corporate worship.

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Scott Aniol

Editor

Scott Aniol is an author, speaker, and teacher of worship, church music philosophy, culture, and aesthetics. In addition to serving as Associate Professor of Church Music and Worship at Southwestern Seminary, Dr. Aniol regularly lectures around the country in churches, conferences, colleges, and seminaries. He has also lectured in conferences and seminaries in Australia, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong

Dr. Aniol is the author of several books, including Worship in Song: A Biblical Approach to Music and Worship (BMH Books, 2009), Sound Worship: A Guide to Making Musical Choices in a Noisy World (Religious Affections Ministries, 2010), By the Waters of Babylon: Worship in a Post-Christian Culture (Kregel, 2015), Tune My Heart: Bible Narrative Devotional Guide for Individuals and Families (RAM, 2020), and Draw Near: The Heart of Communion with God (Wipf & Stock, 2020), as well as dozens of articles.

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R. Allen Lott

Associate Editor

Allen Lott serves as Professor of Musicology at Southwestern Seminary. His research interests include nineteenth-century music and American music.  His book From Paris to Peoria: How European Piano Virtuosos Brought Classical Music to the American Heartland (Oxford University Press) explores several facets of the history of performance and listening.  Previous publications include a festschrift for H. Wiley Hitchcock (A Celebration of American Music) and articles in various scholarly journals (American Music, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 19th-Century Music, and The Journal of Musicology).  Other research, teaching, and personal interests include the role of music in culture, American church music, sacred choral literature, and musical theater.

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Charles T. Lewis Jr.

Associate Editor

Chuck Lewis serves as Associate Dean of the School of Church Music and Worship and Professor of Church Music and Worship.  Coupled with administrative responsibilities, Lewis gives primary leadership to the development of the Worship Ministry training degrees at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Lewis’s life’s objective is to equip men and women to serve, love, and lead God’s people in authentic, Christ-centered, gospel saturated worship to the end that God would be glorified, his church edified, and the world evangelized.

Senior Contributors

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Nathan Burggraff

Nathan Burggraff is Assistant Professor of Music Theory at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

Burggraff completed his graduate studies at the Eastman School of Music, having earned masters degrees in Piano Accompanying (2007) and Music Theory Pedagogy (2010) as well as a PhD in Music Theory (2015). His dissertation research focuses on the interaction of postmodern themes in music and theology. He has presented at several national conferences including the Society for Music Theory and the Society for Christian Scholarship in Music.

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Ben Caston

Ben Caston is Associate Professor of Voice at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Prior to joining the music faculty of SWBTS, Dr. Caston served as the Chair of the Music and Fine Arts Division and Director of Choral Activities at Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland, GA. Under his leadership the Truett-McConnell Chorale toured England and Scotland in March 2015. Since 1994 Dr. Caston has served Baptist churches in Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia and Texas. Passionate about youth choirs, he directed the Georgia Baptist All-State Youth Choir in 2011 and 2014 on their tours to Kentucky, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. Dr. Caston is an active member of the Century Men, National Association of Teachers of Singing, American Choral Directors Association, and The Baptist Church Music Conference.

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Jon Duncan

Ben Caston is Senior Professor of Church Music and Worship

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Will Douglas

Will is currently Artist in Residence at Scarborough College at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and as an Adjunct Instructor of Music at Weatherford College, Arlington Baptist University, and Tarrant County College Northwest and a private guitar instructor at The Guitar Studio  in Fort Worth, TX.

Douglas finished his Masters in Music Performance degree at UNT and has since returned from the Graduate Diploma program in Eliot Fisk’s studio at The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston to seek his Doctorate of Musical Arts degree at the University of North Texas, which he completed in 2019.

Contributors

Robert Pendergraft

David Manner

Jon Duncan

Aaron Rice

Ian Yeung

John Francis

Caleb Castro, Spanish translations

Laramie Minga

Matthew Sikes