Akathist: Bones of the Living Dead

To me it’s all about the artistry. Christianity and art used to be synonymous for a better part of a 1000 years, 1,500+ if you consider architecture.

Somewhere in the 20th century Christian art started being terribly naff, which culminated (and still does) in what the majority of the population think of when they think of Christianity. Modern “Christian” culture is a meme.


And by naff, I’m not talking about the marginalia found in medieval manuscripts. At least those are meaningful.

I grew up on NWA, Eazy-E, and Wu-Tang, but I don’t listen to any of that now, and no amount of nostalgia will push me back into those arms. To me the subject matter of secular music and who I was back then is mostly cringe. It’s just not spiritually edifying for me to regress that way, but I won’t be jamming out to KLOVE any time soon because it’s absurdly camp.

There’s many good Christian artists making music that aren’t bankrolled by megachurches. I prefer that to the secular options. Just takes a little bit of ‘crate digging.’

This is a great song about one of the Eastern Roman emperors around the time of St. Photius. Maybe Belisarius, but I’m no historian.

ArmyMatt said:

Belisarius was a general under St Justinian, I believe.

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I think so since this song is about him retaking Rome from the Ostrogoths.


Judicator, the band, are history nerds who dedicate entire albums to a single historic figure, and it seems Belisarius is the subject of their newest album.