English Congregational Hymns in the Eighteenth CenturyUniversity Press of Kentucky, 2021 M12 14 - 192 pages Historians 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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... suggesting a dramatic self-consciousness on the part of both writers and singers, an awareness that they are involved in a large-scale religious production. The musical theatricality of many of these hymns reminds the reader of the ...
... suggested that the variety and complexity of religious experience of the era have been sadly underestimated. Literary ... suggest both the specialized resources available to the hymnologist and the complexity of our double task of ...
... suggested that why poets write hymns, what principles they follow and within what limits they work, the literary taste of poet and singer alike, the relationship of hymns to other literature, and similar critical questions are ...
... suggested above that in its quality and purpose the emotion expressed in hymns intended for congregational use is depersonalized and doctrinally corrected, thereby differing from the more individual emotion shown by lyrics. Second, it ...
... suggested above. We anticipate that particular attention to the hymn genre and its historical development, in response to the special requirements imposed on the form, will facilitate the proper assignment of hymns to their due place in ...
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 |