English Congregational Hymns in the Eighteenth CenturyHistorians of the English congregational hymn, focusing on its literary or theological aspects, have usually found the genre out of step with the rationalist era that produced it. This book takes a more balanced approach to the work of four writers and concludes that only eighteenth-century Britain, with its understanding of public verse, common truth, and the utility of poetry, could have invented the English hymn as we know it. The early hymns sought to inspire, teach, stir, and entertain congregations. The essential purpose shifted slightly in line with each poet's setting and in accord with the poetic thought of his day. For Isaac Watts's Independents, powerful traditional imagery was appropriate. Charles Wesley's enthusiasm proceeded from and served the spirit of the revival. John Newton's prophetic vision particularly suited the impoverished community at Olney. William Cowper's masterful handling of formal conventions and his idiosyncratic personal hymns reflect his poetic, rather than clerical, vocation. Despite such temporal variations, the great poetry by each man displays themes of general Christian relevance, suggesting common experience, showing normative features of the genre, and bearing a complex and intriguing relationship to secular literature. |
From inside the book
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... Christians, the resulting poem is not suitable for hymn use unless it is doctrinally correct and spiritually edifying. A congregation of worshipers may be asked to sing only an expression of proper and devout religious feeling. The ...
... Christian response to a joyful event, disappointment, despair, temptation, the Nativity, or the Crucifixion. The singers' possibly errant feelings are corrected in the fashion of contemporary exemplary literature as the hymn writer ...
... Christian Hymnody. The bond between hymn text and tune is very strong, and familiar hymns can be considered apart from the traditional tunes only with the greatest difficulty. Routley describes the new music written in England after the ...
... Christian literature with the Psalms, the Book of Common Prayer, the Canon of the Mass. In its own way, it is perfect, unapproachable, elemental in its perfection. You cannot alter it except to mar it; it is a work of supreme devotional ...
... Christian use and, to a greater or lesser extent, didactic in purpose. These features and the purported simplicity ... Christians have committed dozens of hymns to memory, unaware that they know hundreds of lines of poetry by heart ...
Contents
Self Sense the Revival | |
John Newton Olney Prophet | |
Exemplary Tradition the Loss of Control | |
Conclusion | |
Notes | |
Other editions - View all
English Congregational Hymns in the Eighteenth Century Madeleine Forell Marshall,Janet Todd Limited preview - 1982 |
English Congregational Hymns in the Eighteenth Century Madeleine Forrell Marshall,Janet M. Todd No preview available - 2014 |