A second, closely related theme of Pickstock's work has been the place of music in Western thought. Building on the foundation of Augustine's treatise De Musica, several of Pickstock's essays have argued that music is “the science that most leads toward theology,"Catherine Pickstock, "The Musical Imperative", Angelaki, 3.2 (1998): 7. provided it be properly conceived as a contemplative mode of measuring reality. While certain modern approaches to music, as narrated by Pickstock, have tended to distort its metaphysical character in various ways, certain 20th-century and contemporary composers such as Olivier Messiaen and James MacMillan have opened up possibilities of radical return.See Catherine Pickstock, "God and Meaning in Music: Messiaen, Deleuze, and the Musico-Theological Critique of Modernism and Postmodernism", Sacred Music, 134.4 (2007): 40–62.
