Wonderful Words of Life: Hymns in American Protestant History and Theology.Wonderful Words of Life: Hymns in American Protestant History and Theology. Edited by Richard J. Mouw and Mark A Noll. The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Liturgical Studies. (Grand Rapids, Mich., and Cambridge, Eng.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, c. 2004. Pp. xx, 288. Paper, $18.00, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 0-8028-2160-X.) Based largely on presentations given at a conference sponsored by the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals, this volume reads at times like an apologetic treatise drafted with insiders in mind. Though not exactly of, by, and for evangelicals, it comes close to that, offering several heartfelt expressions of hope for a return to prominence of at least a version of traditional hymnody hym·no·dy n. pl. hym·no·dies 1. The singing of hymns. 2. The composing or writing of hymns. 3. The hymns of a particular period or church. and its often Calvinist theological perspectives. An introduction by Richard J. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary Through its three schools, Theology, Psychology, Intercultural Studies, and the Horner Center for Lifelong Learning, the seminary offers university-style education leading to 13 different degrees accredited by the Association of Theological Schools[1] and the Western , sets this tone, especially in his touching lament on the disappearance of hymns and even hymnals from churches where so-called praise songs predominate. The book is not a musicological mu·si·col·o·gy n. The historical and scientific study of music. mu  si·co·log study. Its contributors are more interested in the broader
ways in which hymns became important features of North American
Protestant worship, reflect and form the theological understandings of
composers and worshippers, and form the connective tissue between
personal and social religious experiences.
The contributors focus on a broadening sequence of topics, beginning with the place in Protestant hymnody of Isaac Watts. Mark A. Noll and Esther Rothenbusch Crookshank show how the eighteenth-century Anglican composer gave at least a degree of theological unity to otherwise deeply divided North American Protestants. Rochelle A. Stackhouse depicts revealing and surprising ways that political messages of hymns went through a process of "domestication domestication Process of hereditary reorganization of wild animals and plants into forms more accommodating to the interests of people. In its strictest sense, it refers to the initial stage of human mastery of wild animals and plants. " in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (p. 64). In the second section of this book, which deals with the topic of "American religious life," Robert A. Schneider and Kevin Kee demonstrate the indispensability of hymns in the work of United States and Canadian missionaries and evangelists (p. xix). Thomas E. Bergler depicts conflicts among worship planners over the use of "popular music idioms, instrumentation, and performance styles" and credits the influence of the Youth for Christ Youth for Christ is an international Christian ministry program that promotes youth evangelism and biblical Christianity. In the early 1940s, during World War II, many young men, mostly ministers and evangelists, were holding large rallies in Canada, the United Kingdom and movement of the mid-twentieth century for giving rank-and-file fundamentalists new and invigorating in·vig·or·ate tr.v. in·vig·or·at·ed, in·vig·or·at·ing, in·vig·or·ates To impart vigor, strength, or vitality to; animate: "A few whiffs of the raw, strong scent of phlox invigorated her" ways to celebrate their faith (p. 123). Felicia Piscitelli describes the hitherto underestimated borrowing of Protestant hymns by Catholics. Virginia Lieson Brereton, in the only chapter substantially dealing with African American music African American music (also called black music, formerly known as race music) is an umbrella term given to a range of music and musical genres emerging from or influenced by the culture of African Americans, who have long constituted a large ethnic minority of the and with significant southern content, explains the popularity of black gospel music among white audiences. Essays in the third section of the book address theology. Jeffrey VanderWilt explores ways the theological content of hymns changed as attitudes toward death changed from the early nineteenth century to the late twentieth century. Susan Wise Bauer Susan Wise Bauer (born 1968) is an American author, English instructor of writing and American literature at The College of William and Mary, and founder of Peace Hill Press. examines debates regarding the relative merits of "narrative hymns, ... [which] centered on the believer's experience," and systematic hymns, which "explore a point of Christian doctrine in a logical manner" (pp. 208, 215). Richard Mouw rounds out the collection with a treatment of nautical images in the rescue motif so common to evangelical hymns. He concludes with a comment on "our own 'postmodern' era ... [when many people] actually find reason to celebrate the absence of light and the presence of disorder" and wherein "threatening waves on dark nights" appear. In response Christians should be true to their "own mandate--as persons who have ourselves been rescued from those terrors--as a call to throw out the lifelines and to keep lit the lights along the shore" (p. 250). This book has value for students of southern history, for that history is intertwined with that of the national evangelical subculture, and it reminds readers that the South has not always been the Bible Belt and that evangelicalism evangelicalism Protestant movement that stresses conversion experiences, the Bible as the only basis for faith, and evangelism at home and abroad. The religious revival that occurred in Europe and America during the 18th century was generally referred to as the evangelical has not always been, and is not now, exclusively southern. DAVID David, in the Bible David, d. c.970 B.C., king of ancient Israel (c.1010–970 B.C.), successor of Saul. The Book of First Samuel introduces him as the youngest of eight sons who is anointed king by Samuel to replace Saul, who had been deemed a failure. STRICKLIN Lyon College |
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