Posted on 08/29/2006 1:08:37 PM PDT by NYer
|
For classic Lutheran theology, hymns are a theological "source:" not up there with Scripture, of course, but ranking not-so-far below Luther's "Small Catechism." Hymns, in this tradition, are not liturgical filler. Hymns are distinct forms of confessing the Church's faith. Old school Lutherans take their hymns very seriously.
Most Catholics don't. Instead, we settle for hymns musically indistinguishable from "Les Mis" and hymns of saccharine textual sentimentality. Moreover, some hymn texts in today's Catholic "worship resources" are, to put it bluntly, heretical. Yet Catholics once knew how to write great hymns; and there are great hymns to be borrowed, with gratitude, from Anglican, Lutheran, and other Christian sources. There being a finite amount of material that can fit into a hymnal, however, the first thing to do is clean the stables of today's hymnals.
Thus, with tongue only half in cheek, I propose the Index Canticorum Prohibitorum, the "Index of Forbidden Hymns." Herewith, some examples.
The first hymns to go should be hymns that teach heresy. If hymns are more than liturgical filler, hymns that teach ideas contrary to Christian truth have no business in the liturgy. "Ashes" is the prime example here: "We rise again from ashes to create ourselves anew." No, we don't. Christ creates us anew. (Unless Augustine was wrong and Pelagius right). Then there's "For the Healing of the Nations," which, addressing God, deplores "Dogmas that obscure your plan." Say what? Dogma illuminates God's plan and liberates us in doing so. That, at least, is what the Catholic Church teaches. What's a text that flatly contradicts that teaching doing in hymnals published with official approval?
|
The first hymns to go should be hymns that teach heresy. If hymns are more than liturgical filler, hymns that teach ideas contrary to Christian truth have no business in the liturgy. |
Next to go should be those "We are Jesus" hymns in which the congregation (for the first time in two millennia of Christian hymnology) pretends that it's Christ. "Love one another as I have loved you/Care for each other, I have cared for you/Bear each other's burdens, bind each other's wounds/and so you will know my return." Who's praying to whom here? And is the Lord's "return" to be confined to our doing of his will? St. John didn't think so. "Be Not Afraid" and "You Are Mine" fit this category, as does the ubiquitous "I Am the Bread of Life," to which I was recently subjected on, of all days, Corpus Christi — the one day in the Church year completely devoted to the fact that we are not a self-feeding community giving each other "the bread of life" but a Eucharistic people nourished by the Lord's free gift of himself. "I am the bread of life" inverts that entire imagery, indeed falsifies it.
Then there are hymns that have been flogged to death, to the point where they've lost any evocative power. For one hundred forty years, the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony sent shivers down audiences' spines; does anyone sense its power when it's morphed into the vastly over-used "Joyful, Joyful We Adore You," complete with "chanting bird and flowing fountain"? A fifty-year ban is in order here. As it is for "Gift of Finest Wheat." The late Omer Westendorf did a lot for liturgical renewal, but he was no poet (as his attempt to improve on Luther in his rewrite of "A Mighty Fortress" — "the guns and nuclear might/stand withered in his sight" — should have demonstrated). Why Mr. Westendorf was commissioned to write the official hymn for the 1976 International Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia is one of the minor mysteries of recent years. "You satisfy the hungry heart with gift of finest wheat/Come give to us, O saving Lord, the bread of life to eat" isn't heresy. But it's awful poetry, and it can be read in ways that intensify today's confusions over the Real Presence. It, too, goes under the fifty-year ban.
Hymns are important. Catholics should start treating them seriously.
There's not much wrong with that hymn, either, WRT Catholic teaching. (The "no thanks to them abideth" part is the most problematical, IMO.)
** they're "reevaluating" their "contemporary" service due to lack of attendance.**
LOL! Churches (and pastors) are starting to get the message. We need to hang in there and keep praying for pastors in Perpetual Adoration.
Great hymn....of course I grew up Lutheran and those Germans would shake the rafters!
I like it more for its historical nature and the change that it, the Grace, brought about in the author's life than I do particularly the song itself. But the hymn is about the Grace of God saving an individual from certain torment, who then desires to live in a virtuous way and to do works. What is wrong with that? Does it sound Calvinistic to you? Because that's not what I get from it at all.
"For one hundred forty years, the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony sent shivers down audiences' spines; does anyone sense its power when it's morphed into the vastly over-used 'Joyful, Joyful We Adore You,' complete with 'chanting bird and flowing fountain'? A fifty-year ban is in order here."
Why only 50 years? I might still be alive.
I was standing down in Jerusalem town one day
I was standing down in Jerusalem town one day
I was standing down in Jerusalem town one day
Singing I am the way
I can walk on the water, I can raise the dead
I can walk on the water, I can raise the dead
I can walk on the water, I can raise the dead
It's easy – I am the way
Don't tell nobody I kissed Magdalene
Don't tell nobody I kissed Magdalene
Don't tell nobody I kissed Magdalene
I said, “Mary, it's OK, I am the way”
Every son of god gets a little hard luck sometime
Every son of god gets a little hard luck sometime
Every son of god gets a little hard luck sometime
Especially when he goes around saying he's the way
I am the way
I am the way
I am the way
I am the way
Has the staff of the Wittenberg Door been let out of their assylum?
Sigh.
A good bagpipe version of "Amazing Grace" is a necessary accompaniment to any wake I'm at.
Oh -- that's another problem -- music directors that don't push the music along. It's a lack of leadership. The congregation WILL slow down, it's the organist and the choir's job to keep pushing it ahead. My piskie director was a jerk but he was great at keeping it going. My current one is a great guy, but he's a keyboardist not a singer, and he does like to go slow. It's not stately, it's deadly.
I'm with you there. Another hymn that should be STOPPED! :)
Oxymoron alert!
It's the only song they know, apparently.
And I love Bagpipes.
WOW!
Satire seems to be alive and well.
I grow weary of some modern songs and chorus and am quite thankful our pastor includes a hymn or two Sundays.
But some of the choruses and modern stuff is full of meanng and Spiritual richness.
And, a lot of good things can be driven over the cliff of insipiddity.
Certainly "with charity for all" doesn't seem all that abroad in the hearts of many when discussing Christian music.
Are you referring to Dr. Weigel? This article is a reprint from a few years ago so no, he hasn't just discovered that words mean things.
I love "I am the Bread of Life." To sing it is to sing Scripture. Just as a reader doesn't become Christ when s/he proclaims Scripture in the divine "first person," a cantor or a congregation is not at fault when they do the same. If the hymn proclaims Scripture in a sense that agrees with Tradition, I no longer care if it is in "the first person."
= = = =
I feel the same way.
I'm fairly well convinced that AMAZING GRACE will be sung throughout eternity in all the Heavenly and other realms.
Please, be my guest.
I have also written to them about the horrific art they continue to put on their misalettes and hymnals. With all the wonderful Catholic art that is available, I just don't see why we need to be subjected to it at all.
Haven't noticed the ugly art -- check this Sunday! It's atrocious.
**Oxymoron alert!**
I agree. Can't stand it.
"The Culture of Catholicism and the Triumph of Bad Taste"
Emphasis obviously mine. I think that for a lot of youngin's growing up at the time, this triumph occurred because none were any the wiser.
We was young.
We was ignorant and stupid.
Where the h&ll were the elders to straighten us out about the issue of what was in good/bad/poor/indifferent, and most of all, sacred taste?
Hmmmmmm.
I still remember sitting in the Chinese congregation at the government church the first time Amazing Grace was sung. What preciousness. Tears of joy filled my heart and face. I felt transported Heavenward.
imho, one reason some folks have antipathy for Amazing Grace is a flawed perspective on themselves and on What God's done for them through HIS AMAZING GRACE.
A Baptist PhD boss; ex Navy wing CDR refused to sing "such a worm as I" and sang instead "such a man as I." I think he missed out on some spiritual treasure and richness in that stance.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
