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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... Response Watts's Achievement III. Charles Wesley: Self, Sense, & the Revival Conversion & Sensibility Feeling & the Exemplary Method Hymns for Preachers IV. John Newton, Olney Prophet Newton at Olney History & Prophecy Of Things to Come ...
... response at a particular time within a given Protestant tradition, yielding a great quantity of information about popular religious feeling that is inaccessible elsewhere. While congregational requirements effectively distinguish hymns ...
... 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 skillfully ...
... response to the special requirements imposed on the form, will facilitate the proper assignment of hymns to their due place in the history of English literature. If the effort at definition and placement succeeds, it should provide a ...
... response was expected of the believer. The grotesque tableaux of the Crucifixion familiar in Watts's hymns were subordinated to the reactions of the singers. As we have suggested, the relationship that this lesson in subjectivity bears ...
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 |