Robert Sharpe examines the humanist conception of music as a language--as expressive and intelligible--which has been a dominant theory in Western culture. He argues against the view that music is expressive by causing certain states in us. Rather, he contends that our beliefs about music are integral to our appreciation of it. Differences in musical taste are then not just irresolvable differences in sensitivity, but the result of variations in circumstance and upbringing, of associations and ideology.

This short book is intended to be read in an evening or even a sitting, though it provokes reflections that will go on for far longer. What it has to say is largely directed at the Christian faith, though it may apply to Judaism and Islam as well. Professor Sharpe is a philosopher and writes as a post-Christian. He does not believe in God for moral reasons and argues that in some ways morality is corrupted by religion. He claims that religious belief does not necessarily make its possessor an authority on matters moral and that spokesmen and spokeswomen for religion are often badly wrong...