Modern scholarship has explored music both scientifically and aesthetically, but not philosophically. In early modern Europe, music – particularly singing – was the arena where body and soul came together, embodied in the notion of musica humana . Kim uses this concept to examine the framework within which music and song were used to promote the moral and spiritual education of the laity. This is the first study of its kind, combining historical musicology with philosophical theology to address Renaissance ideas of religion, education and music.