Singing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land: Hymnody in the History of North American Protestantism
Singing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land: Hymnody in the History of North American Protestantism
edited by Edith L. Blumhofer and Mark A. Noll contributions by Katherine McGinn, Barbara Murison, Kay Norton, David Rempel Smucker, Daniel Ramirez, Daniel Fuller, Christopher Armstrong, Scott E. Erickson, Philip Goff, Stephen Marini and Darryl Hart introduction by Stephen Marini
University of Alabama Press, 2008 Cloth: 978-0-8173-1396-8 | eISBN: 978-0-8173-8880-5 | Paper: 978-0-8173-5544-9 Library of Congress Classification BV310.S66 2004 Dewey Decimal Classification 264.230973
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
The latest scholarship on the role of hymns in American evangelicalism
Music and song are important parts of worship, and hymns have long played a central role in Protestant cultural history. This book explores the ways in which Protestants have used and continue to use hymns to clarify their identity and define their relationship with America and to Christianity. Representing seven groups—Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Mennonites, Holiness, Hispanics, and Evangelicals—the nine essays reveal how hymns have helped immigrants to establish new identities, contributed to the body of worship resources, and sustained ethnic identity.
Individual essays address the music of the Old-Fashioned Revival Hour, America’s longest running and most successful independent radio program; singing among Swedish evangelicals in America; the German hymn tradition as transformed by Mennonite immigrants; the ways hymnody reinforces themes of the Wesleyan holiness movement; the history of Mercer’s Cluster (1810), a southern hymnal that gave voice to slaves, women, and native Americans; and the Presbyterian hymnal tradition in Canada formed by Scottish immigrants.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Edith L. Blumhofer is Director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals, Professor of History at Wheaton College, and author of Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody’s Sister.
Mark A. Noll is McManis Profesor of Christian Thought at Wheaton College.
REVIEWS
“This anthology is most original in reaching beyond . . . familiar lines of analysis to approach hymnody from various oblique angles rooted in religious history, sociology, theology, and evangelical studies.”
—Mel Piehl, Dean, Christ College, and Professor of Humanities and History, Valparaiso University
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Introduction 000
1. From Classical to Modern: Hymnody and the Development of
American Evangelicalism, 17371970 000
Stephen Marini
Baptists
2. Reading between the Lines: Slaves, Women, and Native Americans
Reflected in an Important Southern Hymnal of 1810 000
Kay Norton
Presbyterians
3. "Old Favourites" or "New Style": Creating the Hymnal of the
Presbyterian Church in Canada 000
Barbara Murison
4. In the Shadow of Calvin and Watts: Twentieth-Century American
Presbyterians and Their Hymns 000
Darryl G. Hart
Lutheran
5. The Anatomy of Immigrant Hymnody: Faith Communicated in the
Swedish Covenant Church 000
Scott E. Erickson
Mennonites
6. Lifting the Joists with Music: The Hymnological Transition
from German to English for North American Mennonites,
18401940 000
David Rempel Smucker
Holiness
7. "Wrestling Jacob": The Central Struggle and Emotional Scripts
of Camp-Meeting Holiness Hymnody 000
Chris Armstrong
Hispanics
8. Alabaré a mi Señor: Hymnody as Ideology in Latino
Protestantism 000
Daniel Ramírez
Evangelicals
9. Sing Thy Power to Save: Music on the "Old Fashioned Revival
Hour" Radio Broadcast 000
Daniel Fuller, Philip Goff, and Katherine McGinn
Contributors 000
Index 000
Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication: Hymns North America History and criticism, Protestant churches North America History, North America Church history