The Sonic Episteme: Acoustic Resonance, Neoliberalism, and Biopolitics By Robin James. Durham: Duke University Press, 2019.

Abstract

concludes by calling the reader to look to what is now called Palestine for further context. O’Connor reminds us that Jesus himself once lived in that region and would be described today as “a person of color,” and a Jew “who sang the psalms at Passover” and “chanted the scripture in the synagogue” (335). Thus, when we speak of Christianity, we must not lose sight of the origins of its very namesake, as O’Connor confirms the “vast majority of Christians in the Americas (and worldwide) do not share Jesus’s Jewishness” (335). I enjoyed reading this book throughout 2021, and I think it will intrigue readers from a variety of contexts. These chapters would be useful in a variety of classroom environments, whether for undergraduate or graduate students studying sacred or American musical expressions. Scholars of American sacred music will also find this book stimulating in the variety of methodological approaches it considers. In addition to the scholarly and educational contexts in which this book would be useful, I imagine it would also prove meaningful for curious readers beyond an academic context.