Secular music, broadly speaking, is any music that is not religious in nature. The term ''secular'' comes from the Latin word saeculum, and this was used in the early Christian church to mean ''the world,'' as opposed to ''the Church.'' A secular music definition, therefore, is music that is concerned with affairs of the world rather than affairs of the spirit or religion. Most religions have forms of sacred music, but this lesson will focus particularly on the interplay between secular music and sacred music in Christianity from the early Middle Ages until the present day.
