26: Why You Should Chant Psalms and Sing Spirituals

Peter and Susannah chat with Brittany Petruzzi about her interview with Susannah in the current issue of the magazine, Chanting Psalms In the Dark. During the past year, Brittany went permanently blind as the result of a brain tumor, and in the midst of that diagnosis, she started a psalm-chanting YouTube channel. Inspired by her love of and need for God’s word as well as her musical theater background, she discusses this project’s origins and future. The three of them also talk with Paul Buckley about the challenge of incorporating psalm chanting into Protestant worship, and how ingraining psalms into your life can allow them to show up for you when you need them. Then, Pete and Susannah speak with Stephen Michael Newby about the tradition of Black spirituals, about the absolute necessity of racial reconciliation, and about the role of music in that reconciliation. They discuss how spirituals work: their theology and their practice of bringing the events of Scripture into the immediate lives of those who are singing them.