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.
Every verse and phrase of AMAZING GRACE IS PRECIOUS, TO ME.
No, I just don't like the tune.
The old crusty Navy Chief at the CREDO workshops at the WMCA ranch house above San Diego used to love to wake the particpants up with BAGPIPES AMAZING GRACE ABOUT 0530 mornings of the weekend.
Did quite well at top volume.
Hmmmmmm.
Ah well.
For many of us, a few bars of the tune are sufficient for a spiritual blessing.
"Earth and all Stars"!
Hate to say it, I have a soft spot for that one. Bad lyrics and bad message, but for some reason I find myself humming it every once in a while.
No accounting for taste I guess.
Short explanation:
Do the words point us to "Christ and Him, crucified" or to God's creation?
Not my favorite sound but sometimes I enjoy them. My Mother's Mother was a Campbell.
Andrews here.
My great grandfather was from England. I try to blame most of my excentricies on him.
Haven't sung it in years but from what I remember, God's creation. And all that man does is to the glory of God.
I'll have to look up the words.
Howdy, Bro.
Sorry to differ! But guess I do.
I'm not like my relatives on either side.
Just me.
lol I love the "hymn" threads!
Hope all is well with you.
Personally, I refuse to attend contemporary worship but have certainly heard both songs if I've been in the building during that service.
I'm passing your versions along, if you don't mind. Thank you Pastor Henrickson.
Slightly off topic here, but this has always bothered me. If we're created in the image and likeness of God, why do some non-Catholics consider yourselves as "worms?"
As Catholics we are taught:
356 Of all visible creatures only man is "able to know and love his creator". He is "the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake",and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God's own life. It was for this end that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity
357 Being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his stead.
You are not some lowly worm, but a marvellous creation of the Almighty God.
Didn't the Seraphim have a set of six wings?
Me too. I'm so upset with so many things that are happening in the churches I could type for three days straight.
What is sad is that with all the seeker-centered mega churches out there, people that are very new and not grounded in the Word think it is perfectly okay. After all, what is their frame of reference but a stage instead of an altar and happy talk sermons? Why bring up a topic like suffering and ruin a perfectly good concert? < /sarcasm >
While I agree in general, even in our condemnations of the terrible we should be just.
I think "I am the bread of Life" is almost entirely a cento of verses from the Bread of Life discourse. I think singing Scripure isn't a priori bad. We're no more pretending to be our Lord than St. John was when he wrote the passage. In principle it should be okay.
BUt why we have to sing tripe mystifies me. It's like the defense given to Judge Carswell - that the mediocre should be represnted like everybody else. Nope. Hymns should be the best we have, for many reasons, not the least of which is that hymns may be the one opportunity a lot of people have to listen to and to sing good music. (Same goes for translations of Scripture.)
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.