Nicholas Cook explores the nature of music, how we think about it, its social and cultural dimensions, and its history. He discusses the many musical traditions across the world and the interactions between them. He also considers performance, how composers create music, and the position of music in today's globalized society.
For centuries it has been discussed whether systematic theology is a scientific discipline. But it is not obvious what is meant by either "systematic theology" or "scientific discipline". This work presents an understanding of systematic theology as a tripartite discipline and science as a rationally justified public discourse about a given topic. As such, the book shows that systematic theology is a scientifically strong discourse that meets accepted criteria to the same degree as other disciplines.
Systematic theology is as scientific in its aim, scope, and methods as other disciplines within the academia.