Christian Hymns Research Articles

DISCURSIVE DYNAMICS OF ETHNOSENTENTIAL STRATEGIES IN SELECTED AFROCENTRIC HYMNODY

The distinctive nature of hymnody in Christian religious worship has made it a rich and limitless subject for scholarly examination, offering a unique form of communication that continues to fascinate and inspire academic inquiry in Africa, especially in Nigeria. Existing studies in Christian hymns have examined the contents of hymns as music forms with little or no scholarly considerations on the ethnosentential strategies employed by the hymnists. This study, therefore, intends to fill this gap with the view to identifying and discussing discursive dynamics of ethnosentential strategies in Afrocentric hymnody. This study utilizes relevant insights from Teun van Dijk’s socio-cognition model of Critical Discourse Analysis to explore the strategies in the selected hymns. The data were purposively derived from the two hymnists: Bola Ilori and Esther Laosebikan, one hymn each titled “Lord, let your blessings attend us” and The Lord is King arrayed in majesty”, was purposively selected with the discuss issues of supplication and praise/worship respectively. The analysis revealed that ethno-sentential strategies such as Africanized imagery, collectivization, language indigenization, culturocentrism, hybridization among others characterized African hymns. The findings further revealed that both hymnists use almost similar structural elements such as imperative sentences and comparative phrases, but different in tone, emphasis and imagery. This study concluded that there is an intersection of linguistic features, ethnosentential strategies and discursive dynamics in religious discourse, with focus on hymnody to uncover the complex ways in which language shapes and reflects cultural, social and theological identities.

Revisiting the Structure and Rhetoric of the Christ Hymn in Colossians 1:15–20: A Thematic Analysis Based on Systemic Functional Linguistics

Abstract Although there have been several studies on the linguistic features of the Christ Hymn in Col 1:15–20, they rarely start with the “clauses” or investigate how messages are conveyed in the clauses in this hymn. This article will adopt Michael A. K. Halliday’s systemic functional system of theme and rheme, particularly his perception of the clause as message, to gain insights into the ways in which information is managed into categories of given and new at the clause level, and thereby accomplishing rhetorical purposes in the Christ Hymn. This article will seek to demonstrate how Paul intimates point of view by employing the linguistic device of “thematization” to foreground “the Son” to be the chief topic of the Christ Hymn and thereby underline his universal Lordship. The result of this thematic analysis will underline the textual cohesion of the Christ Hymn and lend support to the view that this hymn comprises the two stanzas in vv. 15–18a and vv. 18b–20.

Theology in Melody: An Indigenous Theological Method of the Nepali Church

Even after seven decades of Christianity in Nepal, an Indigenous Nepali theology has yet to emerge. Although Christianity is rapidly growing, it is unclear how the Nepali church is meeting its theological needs. Nepali Christians have long composed Christian hymns. This article argues that Nepali Christian leaders were unintentionally using songwriting to fulfill their duty of doing theology. This article focuses primarily on two tasks related to this topic. First, it argues that singing songs is a form of expression used by the Nepali people that the church may view as a theological method. Songs are the primary Indigenous tools available to people for developing social consciousness, speaking out against oppressive systems and discrimination, and creating a space to combat societal divisions. As a result, it is argued that songs could be used as a theological tool by the Nepali church. Second, this study looks at specific Christian songs to see how they are used in Nepali churches and what theological content they contain. It will show how Nepali Christians use music to express their love for their country and its people, as well as their desire to use the gospel to change society. This article also asserts that for Nepali Christians, Christian songs have served as a means of expressing, teaching, and learning about their faith, and thus have become their theology in melody. The argument is that the Nepali hymnal is unquestionably a theology book for Nepali Christians because it is available for every life event, including marriage, baptism, birth, and death, and directs their action in their context.

The Significance and Musical Features of Modern Korean Buddhist Hymns through Baek Yong-sung’s Buddhist Hymns

Chan-bul-ga (찬불가, 讚佛歌), which in English means ‘songs in praise of the Buddha’, refers to a style of Korean Buddhist hymn that emerged during the modernization of Korean Buddhism. Buddhist hymns—which can be considered to be based on Christian hymns—are characterized by the fact that they can be easily learned by the general public so that they can easily participate in Buddhist rituals together, unlike the existing Korean Buddhist musical styles of ‘Beom-pae (범패, 梵唄)’ and ‘Hwa-cheong (화청, 和請)’. The monk Baek Yong-sung (1864–1940), who embraced the function and effectiveness of these new religious music styles as one of his methods of propagation, participated in the independence movement after the 1910 Korea–Japan Annexation Treaty, and he led both the public enlightenment movement and the spread of Buddhism by creating Buddhist hymns. The present study seeks to examine Baek Yong-sung’s social activities and the context in which modern Buddhist hymns emerged. This study also explores the religious, social, and musical meanings of Buddhist hymns while focusing on his works ‘Wang-seng-ga (왕생가)’ and ‘Se-gye-gi-si-ga (세계기시가)’.

Glocalization: The Development and Localization of Chinese Christian Hymns between 1807 and 1949

The global dissemination of Christianity has resulted in diverse singing styles and historical narratives that incorporate different languages and musical traditions. Chinese Christian hymns, in particular, possess distinctive features that reflect the Chinese thinking mode and cultural values, showcasing the interplay between Western hymns and Chinese singing and poetic and cultural traditions within the Chinese historical context. This paper takes Chinese Christian hymnals published between 1807 and 1949 as its object of study. It conducts research on representative hymnals from three historical stages: the emergence, flourishing, and prosperity of hymns, and examines their compilation and publication. Using methods such as historical research, textual criticism, translation studies, and cross-cultural communication, the paper explores the evolution of Chinese Christian hymns. The paper analyzes such aspects of the hymnals as translating and writing strategies, thematic content, linguistic features, editing and formatting, as well as the selection and composition of melodies. It is concluded that the indigenization of Chinese hymns does not involve outright rejection of foreign elements or unquestioning adherence to local traditions, but rather represents a common ground between Chinese and Western languages and vocal traditions, reflecting the characteristic of glocalization.

The Hymn Gloria and Its Place in the Celebration of the Eucharist

Music is an essential part of human life, but it is also integral to the experience of faith. From its beginnings, music has been associated with religious expression and worship. One of the oldest Christian hymns is the hymn “Gloria in excelsis Deo”-“Glory to God in the highest”, which was originally a component of morning and evening prayer. Later, it became part of the Holy Mass and is still sung during the celebration of the Eucharist on Sundays and feast days. The aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive view of this precious hymn in terms of its historical use. The study pays special attention to the sources of the text of this ancient hymn. A theological analysis of the text is also an indispensable prerequisite for a deeper understanding. Finally, the study offers up-to-date guidelines for the hymn’s use today.

“Let All the World in Every Corner Sing”

WikiProject Christian Hymns began as one individual’s involvement in a pilot project to test Wikidata as an identity management platform, but it has continued on as a standalone project to improve the coverage of global Christian hymnody in Wikidata and connect the resulting data to library resources. The complexity of hymnody creates challenges in the Wikidata environment, with tunes ranging from African American spirituals and medieval chant to contemporary Christian worship melodies and adaptations of folk music. The addition of texts from a variety of sources and languages increases the complexity. This paper describes the creation of the project, discusses the difficulties encountered in developing a data model, shows visualizations that explore various aspects of the data, and demonstrates connections with library resources while considering ongoing challenges.

“Hail, Bema of Victory, Great Sign of Our City!”

The goal of this article is to situate the Manichaean Bema Psalms from the Coptic Manichaean Psalmbook in the late antique Roman Empire, on the one hand, and to introduce it as a point of comparison for scholars interested in comparative liturgy, on the other. It argues that public expressions of adoration in the late antique Roman Empire, especially acclamations and panegyrics, functioned as the cultural scaffolding for the performance of the Bema Festival in the Roman Near East. To support this claim, it will first show how Bema Psalm 222 uses imperial acclamations and topoi drawn from panegyrics to welcome Mani to the bema. It then turns to compare the Bema Psalms with Christian and Jewish liturgy, thereby demonstrating that the Bema Psalms participate in the same liturgical developments as their neighbors in the Roman Empire. It shows how various “hailing” acclamations found throughout Bema Psalms parallel Christian hymns in praise of Mary, the Theotokos (God-bearer) in both form and epithets used. It then pivots to compare the role of refrains in a Jewish liturgical text for Passover with another Bema Psalm, ultimately arguing that both locate the congregation within a liturgical drama through the performance of acclamatory refrains.

ВКЛАД ШЭНЬ СИНЬГУНА И ЛИ ШУТУНА В СТАНОВЛЕНИЕ ХОРОВОГО ИСКУССТВА КИТАЯ: ОТ «ШКОЛЬНЫХ ПЕСЕН» К «ВЕСЕННЕЙ ПРОГУЛКЕ»

The article traces the early development of Chinese choral art: from the singing courses introduced into the secondary school curriculum and the "school song" (Xue tang yuey ge), which acted both as an academic discipline and a popular vocal genre, to the appearance of the first three-voice choir "Spring Walk" by the composer and teacher Li Shutong. It is noted that the school song genre originated as an independent phenomenon in Japan, where works written in the hogaku style were highly revered, and the reforms of the Meiji period (1898–1912) played an important role in the development of choral art. Many Chinese students continued their studies in Japan, where, during the reforms, Western military and school music was borrowed, and choral singing began to be cultivated as a result of the perception of Christian culture. The purpose of this article is to present the works of Chinese educators, Shen Xingong and Li Shutong, whose activities were aimed at establishing the choral art in China. It describes the first school songs composed by Shen Xingong and Li Shutong to music borrowed from folklore, Christian hymns or famous Western European works, and the first three-voice composition by Li Shutong, which paved the way to Chinese choral polyphony.

‘From Heaven Shone the Grace of the Martyrs.’ A Christian Hymn Reconsidered

Abstract New edition of a short Christian hymn preserved on papyrus.

"Work for the Night is Coming": How Christian Hymns Frame Human Labor

We examine how popular religion portrays human labor by analyzing work themes in Christian hymns published over five centuries, from 1500 to 2000. Utilizing an emergent qualitative approach, we identify eight themes:Reward follows Work;Work with Dedication;God Provides;Work is Difficult;Work is Holy;Work is Duty;Work in Solidarity; andWitness at Work. A quantitative examination indicates that the themes ofReward follows Work,Work with Dedication, andGod Providesoccur most frequently.Reward follows WorkandWork with Dedicationdecline in the second half of the twentieth century whileWork in Solidarityrises, suggesting increased attention to global labor justice. Historically, hymns broadcast the Protestant Work Ethic. Today, they herald several underexplored dimensions of workplace religion.

Song Melody and Speech Tone Conflict in Translated Yorùbá Christian Hymns

This article engages song melody and speech tone conflict in translated Yorùbá Christian hymns between the late 19th and early 20th century. In their effort to make early Yorùbá Christian converts sing Christian hymns in the church, European missionaries translated English hymns to Yoruba, and sang them to the original European hymn tunes. Yorùbá being a tone language, requires a significant level of correlation between song melody and speech tone, for the words to retain their original meaning when sung. The tripartite constraint of aligning melody, meter, as well as meaning, posed a major problem to the hymn translators. Having given priority to melody and metre, the translators therefore, tend to compromise on meaning, thereby producing Yorùbá hymns that will sound interesting melodically, and correlate metrically with the metre, but producing hardly meaningful words when sung. This study utilized samples from Iwe Orin Mimo, being the Yorùbá translation of a range of hymns in Hymnal Companion, Hymns Ancient and Modern, and some other hymn books popularly used by the Church Missionary Society (CMS). The work presents a graphical illustration of the disparity between the hymn tunes and the speech tone of the Yorùbá language. It also highlights the efforts of Indigenous composers in correcting the perceived error through re-composition of the first stanza of selected hymns, to which they wrote more stanzas that align with the theme of the first stanza. The inappropriately translated Yorùbá hymn books have remained strong institutions within the church and have therefore, continued to promote the use of the translated hymns in the Yoruba church.

Paul on Humility

Paul on Humility

The Music of Christendom: A History by Susan Treacy

Reviewed by: The Music of Christendom: A History by Susan Treacy Alexis K. Kutarna Susan Treacy The Music of Christendom: A History Greenwood Village, CO: Augustine Institute / San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2021 235 pages. Paperback. $16.95. In this compelling history of music, Susan Treacy weaves together a story of faith and the Western tradition of classical music, following major figures and their works as signposts along the way. Every college music history student is familiar with the standard texts which divide Western music into a timeline, covering the major periods, and a survey of music. Even the standard music appreciation texts follow this same format. Uniquely crafted as a story, in a concise paperback, Treacy writes a captivating tale of historical events and the lives of composers. Her narrative provides an accessible entry point for the non-musician to discover the spiritual orientation of music from a Catholic approach, even in secular genres of music. The Music of Christendom consists of 28 chapters focusing on a wide variety of music in the Western tradition. As any serious study of Western music begins, the first section introduces ancient Greek philosophy of music. Even Greek philosophy is influential over the development of music in the West, although the name [End Page 98] Pythagoras may seem surprising for the casual reader to discover in a musical context (6). Pythagorean ideals of music in the cosmos and the harmony of the soul are essential to understanding the influence of music on the moral life, as found for instance in Plato's Timaeus (8). Treacy highlights the importance of Boethius' contribution to the corpus of philosophical writings about music in his instruction, De institutione musica (10). The bold statement that "Gregorian chant is the foundation of all Western music" (13) is strongly supported in the following sections of her work. After an overview of the place of chant in the liturgy, Treacy provides several examples for the reader's listening guide. In fact, several Gregorian chants make it on to her "top 100" list, to be found at the back of the book. Moving through the story of Hildegard to early polyphony, she also makes note of the development of secular song and its relationship to the story of Christendom. Her tales take us through architectural descriptions of Notre-Dame de Paris, the heroic life of Joan of Arc, to Josquin des Prez; all referring back to the liturgical chant in the Church in the West. One strength (among many!) of Treacy's work is how she intertwines the lives of composers as they influence each other: Palestrina would have likely known Victoria, and perhaps even taught him (66). Treacy's commentary extends beyond a list of compositions and simple biographical details, for example exploring the influence of Victoria not only in Spain but teaching music to German seminarians and the spread of his music to Mexico (66-67). She manages to move seamlessly yet efficiently around the globe, and from one composer to another, without the narrative becoming disjunct or cumbersome. The book treats all of the major composers from Vivaldi to Bach to Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms. While avoiding becoming bogged down with too much detail, Treacy chooses those moments of interest wisely. For instance, she shares that the fifth movement of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony, while based on a Christian hymn about the resurrection of the body, omits the remaining stanzas and the word "Hallelujah," opting instead to [End Page 99] insert his own ecstatic poetry, which in the end completely ignores the Christian teaching on final judgment (171). I found the final sections to contain delightful references to pieces from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including some unexpected inclusions. In 1900, Edward Elgar composed a lengthy setting of John Henry Newman's meditative poem The Dream of Gerontius, which Treacy describes in compelling detail (198-201). There is also a section with the music of Gershwin and Copland—two composers that would not necessarily be on a list of specifically Catholic works but, as she writes, even Porgy and Bess contains Catholic influences (230). Finally, she spends the last pages on the work of, among others, Scottish composer James...

Haunted by Christ: Modern Writers and the Struggle for Faith

Haunted by Christ: Modern Writers and the Struggle for Faith

When Songs Don't Work: Western Tonalities and Korean Breath in Children's Songs of the Colonial Period

In the 1920s, colonial Korean children had different opportunities and materials to sing. Newly established missionary schools adapted hymns for children, and the colonial schools run by the Japanese regime considered song time to be essential to children's emotional and intellectual development. It is from this diverse ecology of musical offerings that original Korean sung poems, or tongyo, emerged. Tongyo were short poems written by often prominent writers that were then set to music by Korean composers, many of whom studied Western music in Japan. Tongyo composers wrote works that, unlike Christian hymns (ch'ansongga) and Japanese school songs (changga), were written in the Korean language and were intended for Korean voices but were structured by what was then novel Western musical conventions. Through an analysis of tongyo by two seminal figures, Yun Kŭgyŏng and Chŏng Sunch'ŏl, this paper illuminates the musical grammar by which Yun and Chŏng re-oriented the sensibilities of their young singers. This comparison reveals the challenges of fitting western tonalities to the Korean language, thereby questioning the prevalent assumption that tongyo were national forms whose value hinges on their effortless communication of authentic Korea emotions.

Die bepaling van ons mees geliefde Afrikaanse kerklied - 'n metodiese ondersoek

In hierdie artikel word 'n uiteensetting gegee van die proses en die resultate van die gebruik van 'n self-geadministreerde aanlyn opname en vraelys om die mees "geliefde" kerklied in Afrikaanssprekende gemeentes in Suid-Afrika te bepaal. Daar word aandag gegee aan aspekte soos die keuse van metode, steekproefneming van respondente, vraelysontwerp en die statistiese ontleding van response. Sommige van die risikoverminderingstrategieë wat die navorser gebruik, word ook uitgelig. Uit die ontleding van die data is dit duidelik dat gemeentes 'n voorkeur toon vir kerkliedere uit die Liedboek en Psalmboek, maar dat daar duidelik ook 'n liefde is vir liedere uit beide die VONKK- en FLAM-genre. Dit is verder ook duidelik dat die Psalms (al is dit net 'n paar) in die amptelike Afrikaanse Liedboek steeds 'n belangrike rol speel in die spiritualiteit van baie van die Afrikaanssprekende gemeentes in Suider-Afrika. Hierdie artikel dra by tot die metodologiese debat in die navorsingsveld van kerkmusiek.

“Translated” or “Transformed”: The Use of Western Hymns in the Evangelization of the Lisu of Southwest China

Translated western hymns have a bad reputation in missiology. The term “translated” seems to convey a less than authentic expression of Christian faith. However, that was not how it happened when the Lisu of southwest China were evangelized by missionaries from the China Inland Mission in the 1920s and 1930s. The Lisu people exerted much more agency over their translated western hymns than the term “translated” implies. While the kernel of melody and message remained intact, four-part harmonies replaced unison singing. A cappella replaced piano or organ accompaniment. Phrases meaningful in a Victorian context were transformed into phrases meaningful in a Lisu mountain context. Abstract theological terms were replaced by concrete phrases. Western rhyming schemes were laid aside and Lisu poetic couplets were used instead. The end result is that in the everyday arena, in the practical living out of what it means to be a Christian for a communal and still largely oral-preference people such as the Lisu, the Lisu Christian hymns are the centerpiece of worship and devotion, of prayer and penitence. In other words, in the process of cross-cultural transmission, the Lisu hymns were not so much translated, as they were transformed.

The Experience of Poetry: From Homer’s Listeners to Shakespeare’s Readers

The Experience of Poetry: From Homer’s Listeners to Shakespeare’s Readers

Re-exploring the Christ Hymn (Phil 2:6-11) from a Roman Gender Perspective

이 논문은 바울의 ‘그리스도 찬가’(빌 2:6-11)를 그레코-로마 시대의 젠더의 관점으로 새롭게 해석한다. 빌립보서에 나타난 ‘그리스도 찬가’에 대한 주류학계의 해석 가운데 하나는 이 찬가가 로마제국의 권력을 부정하고 예수의 권세를 확증하는 정치적인 진술로 보는 것이다. 이 찬가에서 그려진 예수는 하나님으로부터 지극히 높임을 받았을 뿐만 아니라, 모든 이들이 그 앞에 무릎을 꿇고 예수를 ‘주’라 고백하고 복종할 만큼 아주 막강한 힘을 가진 존재로 그려진다. 그러나 로마 젠더의 관점에서 보면, 예수는 종의 몸을 취하고 있다는 점에서 비남성적인 존재다. 일반적으로 그레코-로마 시대의 로마 젠더 관점에서 볼 때, 종의 몸은 여성적인 몸으로 간주되었기 때문이다. 이렇게 ‘그리스도 찬가’는 예수의 몸에 대한 ‘남성적’ 시각과 ‘여성적’ 시각이 혼재되어있을 뿐만 아니라, 두 시각은 상충하고 충돌한다. 따라서, 이 논문은 찬가 속에 예수의 남성화된 몸과 여성화된 몸이 공존한다는 것을 보여줄 뿐만 아니라, 예수의 여성화된 몸이 기존의 학계가 주장해온 예수가 남성적이고, 지배적이고, 강력한 힘과 권위를 지닌 존재라고 주장에 한계가 있다는 것을 밝힌다.