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
Results 1-5 of 22
... hymn writer skillfully exploits the situation in which the singers recite ... writers and singers, an awareness that they are involved in a large-scale ... hymn tunes. It is by viewing the hymns in such a context of eighteenthcentury ...
... hymns of Charles Wesley significantly dulls the critical sensibility. Instead we have chosen hymn writers of the century who represented the major dissenting and evangelical traditions, the groups who sang hymns. Watts stands for ...
... hymn writers to forge a practical, Christian alternative. Certainly the apologetic of the hymn writers supports this view. Defending his hymns, Watts wrote: “David would have thought it very hard to have been confin'd to the Words of ...
... hymn writers were escaping. Tate and Brady made one of many attempts at modernization. The prescribed uses of the psalms show further that the psalms were accepted as both Christian and expressive of common spiritual states of the ...
... hymn writers, who wanted to direct expression toward exemplary Christian attitudes, to focus songs on Christian answers, in this case remedies for spiritual desolation. Second, although private use was appropriate, hymns were, by and ...
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 |