Singing Church History: Introducing the Christian Story through Hymn Texts

In every generation, theological thought, priorities, and even controversies have been expressed in the texts of hymns. Reading and studying these texts gives us a fascinating glimpse into history. Singing them today connects us to timeless Christian truths, as well as to the great cloud of witnesses from the distant past to the present day. It is this connection that makes it so essential to keep a wide selection of hymns in every congregation's repertoire. This book by Paul Rorem is a great, relatively quick read for anyone interested in the intersections of church history, theology, and church music. Recommended for seminarians as well as congregational book groups and Christian education courses. --Tim Getz, director of music, Grace Lutheran Church, Palo Alto, California

A brilliant idea brilliantly done! There is no book we can hold in our hand that contains as much history as a hymnal. The story of each hymn in its particularity can teach us moments in church history that, together, give us the entire sweep of the past from Miriam to Lina Sandell. A great treasure and resource for congregations. --Gracia Grindal, professor emerita of rhetoric, Luther Seminary

Hymns, songs, and liturgy are formational to our Lutheran faith, marrying music, poetry, and theology. Building on the work of Erik Routley and Paul Westermeyer, Rorem explores hymns and songs, old and new, revealing the way they reflect their time, both historically and theologically, and also transcend it. This new resource is an excellent way to bring pastors, musicians, and lay folks together to teach, learn about, and appreciate our singing history as the church of Jesus Christ. --Julie Grindle, associate with the bishop of the Upstate New York Synod of the ELCA, and church musician

Paul Rorem applies his deep knowledge of church history and theology to hymns, and the result is an engagingly written brief history of the subject. Intended for lay audiences, it would make a good college or seminary textbook. --Joseph Herl, professor of music, Concordia University, Seward, Nebraska

Hymnody has been referred to as a form of practical theology; the church's central beliefs about Jesus are expressed through what the church sings in worship. Singing Church History proves that point, introducing major events, theologies, and figures of Christian history through a breezy, eminently readable chronology of congregational song. --Zebulon M. Highben, associate professor of the practice of church music, Duke Divinity School, and director of chapel music, Duke University Chapel

This is an unusual book, since we often associate hymns with worship, what we do on Sundays--those powerful songs that connect us with special times and special people in our lives. But as Paul Rorem creatively explores, the hymns we sing in the present also have a significant past. And it is in coming to terms with that past that our singing in the present takes on new meaning. --Robin A. Leaver, professor emeritus, Westminster Choir College, and editor of A New Song We Now Begin: Celebrating the Half Millennium of Lutheran Hymnals 1524-2024