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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... inspired the form by its spiritual content, the diction, figurative language, and verbal design of the hymns are human creations dependent on the literary tradition within which the poet is working. (A modern inversion of Benson's ...
... inspire hymnological undertakings and to undermine their avowed critical purpose. With little explanation Bernard Lord Manning claimed that the Hymns for People Called Methodists ranks in Christian literature with the Psalms, the Book ...
... inspired the Wesleys to learn German and exposed them to a variety of German hymns and their use. The Wesleys profited. The Moravians also provided a model for the adaptation of the seventeenth-century hymn to mid-eighteenthcentury ...
... inspire feelings conducive to virtue and piety. This feature is characteristic of the literature not of romance but of sensibility. Religious feeling was good in itself, a hallmark of piety, and good as well as a motive force, encouraging.
... inspired piety. Dramatic literature was particularly effective, and Watts delighted in the pious effects of French ... inspire efficacious dread and delight. The idealized figure of the Christian poet might remind us.
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 |