British Methodist Hymnody

Theology, Heritage, and Experience

Martin V. Clarke

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317171782
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Music

Hymnody is widely recognised as a central tenet of Methodism's theological, doctrinal, spiritual, and liturgical identity. Theologically and doctrinally, the content of the hymns has traditionally been a primary vehicle for expressing Methodism's emphasis on salvation for all, social holiness, and personal commitment, while particular hymns and the communal act of participating in hymn singing have been key elements in the spiritual lives of Methodists.

An important contribution to the history of Methodism, British Methodist Hymnody argues that the significance of hymnody in British Methodism is best understood as a combination of its official status, spiritual expression, popular appeal, and practical application. Seeking to consider what, when, how, and why Methodists sing, British Methodist Hymnody examines the history, perception, and practice of hymnody from Methodism's small-scale eighteenth-century origins to its place as a worldwide denomination today.

1 Authorised hymnody

Hymnals as expressions of doctrine and theology

Words from the prefaces of two of Methodism’s most significant and enduring hymnals, A Collection of Hymns for the use of the People called Methodists (1780) and The Methodist Hymn Book (1933) have long been used to explain the importance of both the hymnal and hymn singing to Methodists. Introducing and commending the 1780 Collection to the Methodist people, John Wesley described it as ‘a little body of experimental and practical divinity’ (1780, p. 74). The compilers of the Methodist Hymn Book boldly began their preface with the simple statement that ‘Methodism was born in song’ (Methodist Church, 1933, p. iii).

Wesley’s description concludes a paragraph in which he sets out the practical merits of the Collection in terms of its size and breadth of content, and, more significantly, its spiritual merit: ‘The hymns are not carelessly jumbled together but carefully ranged under proper headings, according to the experience of real Christians’ (Wesley, 1780, p. 74). The hymnal is thus established as being more than a utilitarian religious songbook; it is a theologically-conceived manual for Christian living. Forasmuch as the actual contents of the 1780 Collection exerted a long-lasting influence on Methodism, the conceptual understanding of the hymnal as a statement of doctrine and theology and as a companion to the Christian life has been even more enduring; the preface to British Methodism’s most recent hymnal, Singing the Faith (2011), states that its compilers ‘endeavoured to produce a rich collection for worship which expresses the core beliefs of the Christian faith and reflects distinctive Methodist emphases’ while also envisaging ‘that the hymnbook will be used to enrich private devotion as well as public worship’ (Bircumshaw and Brophy, 2011, p. viii).

The succinct phrase used by the compilers of the 1933 hymnal expresses not only Methodism’s self-understanding of hymnody’s place in its life-blood, but also its awareness of its heritage of song. In their very first words, the compilers are explicitly recalling this heritage in order implicitly to place their own work in a context of historical continuity. The preface’s opening paragraph goes on to place Charles Wesley’s hymns at the centre of Methodism’s corpus of hymnody, describing him as its ‘characteristic poet’ and ‘the poet of the Evangelical faith’ (Methodist Church, 1933, p. iii). The paragraph concludes with a remark that underlines the continuation of the theological conceptualisation of hymnody observed in the 1780 Collection as well as the awareness of heritage: ‘In consequence Methodism has always been able to sing its creed’ (Methodist Church, 1933, p. iii).

This chapter assesses Methodism’s authorised hymnody; first, the concept of authorised hymnals will be explored, before an examination of how aspects of doctrine and theology have been articulated by the shape and structure of the hymnals authorised throughout Methodism’s history, noting how these reflect both changes and developments within Methodism and also broader religious and cultural influences.

The concept of authorised hymnody and hymnals

Although the Wesley brothers published a range of hymnals during the eighteenth century, the 1780 Collection is commonly regarded as Methodism’s first authorised hymnal (Young, 1993, pp. 94–5). John Wesley’s preface gives credence to this assumption: ‘For many years I have been importuned to publish such a Hymn Book as might be used in all our Congregations throughout Great Britain and Ireland. … Such a Hymn Book you have now before you’ (Wesley, 1780, p. 73). Interestingly, although authorised hymnody became associated with authentic expressions of Methodist doctrinal and theological standards, Wesley’s preface indicates that its origins were more pragmatic. He claims that while he initially resisted the urge to publish a single, authorised hymnal, due to the rich variety of volumes he and Charles had already published, he was finally persuaded to do so because many Methodists could not afford to purchase numerous books, and even those who had found themselves overwhelmed and confused by the volume of hymns available to them. Out of this practical need came the opportunity to compile a collection that ‘is large enough contain all the important truths of our most holy religion, whether speculative or practical; yea, to illustrate them all, and to prove them both by Scripture and reason. And this is done in a regular order’ (Wesley, 1780, pp. 73–4).

As Wesley’s preface makes clear, the 1780 Collection was by no means the first hymn book widely used within Methodism, and its relationship with its predecessors is worthy of consideration. Leaver posits that throughout the Wesleys’ lifetimes, there were two strands of hymnals within Methodism, which were designed for different purposes: ‘one reflecting the concerns of the weekly meetings of the Methodist societies, the other reflecting the structure and content of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer ’ (2010, p. 41). The various editions of the Collection of Psalms and Hymns were structured according to the liturgical needs of the early Methodists, whose pattern of worship was still closely bound up with the Church of England; the main collection had sections for Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and Saturdays, and it was regularly supplemented with smaller volumes specific to the various seasons and events of the liturgical calendar. On the other hand, the various volumes titled Hymns and Sacred Poems placed greater emphasis on personal devotion and holiness. Leaver argues that the 1780 Collection follows in the second, more personal, category, designed for societal rather than liturgical use, and points to John and Charles Wesley’s decision to append A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for the Lord’s Day (1784), which belongs in the first category, to The Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America as evidence. He concludes that ‘as far as the Wesley brothers were concerned there were two types of hymn collection required for Methodists: Psalms and Hymns (with their occasional supplements) for corporate worship, and Hymns for the People Called Methodists for personal and society use’ (Leaver, 2010, p. 50). Leaver’s persuasive argument raises some interesting questions about the subsequent history of Methodism’s authorised hymnody, which largely drew on the 1780 Collection for inspiration. Yet, on the evidence of Wesley’s own preface, this was not an unjustified approach, for he seems to present it in succession to ‘the various Hymn Books which my Brother and I have published within these forty years last past’ (Wesley, 1780, p. 73).

The editors of The Works of John Wesley accord the 1780 Collection considerable historical weight, claiming that ‘where other traditions refer to the Articles and Confessions of Faith, Methodists (while accepting the historic creeds) find their doctrines expressed in three sets of biblical expositions: Sermons [on Several Occasions], [Explanatory] Notes [on the New Testament], Hymns ’ (Wesley, 1780, p. 1). They go on to describe the 1780 Collection as ‘a primer of theology for the Methodist people and a manual both for public worship and private devotion’ (Wesley, 1780, p. 1). While Leaver makes no reference to Wesley’s preface in his argument, neither do the editors of the Works substantiate their claim about the Collection ’s intended liturgical use. They do, however, refer to the various earlier collections issued by the Wesleys, and note how these served different purposes. In accounting for the later publication of A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for the Lord’s Day and the two versions of Wesley’s A Pocket Hymnbook, for the use of Christians of all denominations (1785; 1787), they point to particular pragmatic needs, describing the 1780 Collection as a ‘definitive volume’, which ‘should logically have been the last publication prepared by Wesley for his congregations’ (Wesley, 1780, p. 28).

Why, then, has the 1780 Collection been accorded its unique status as the first authorised hymnal of British Methodism? Its structure will be analysed in detail later in this chapter, but even a brief glance at the headings of its five main parts, ‘Containing Introductory Hymns’, ‘Convincing’, ‘[For Mourners and Backsliders]’, ‘For Believers’, and ‘For the Society’ shows that it was not driven by liturgical principles, but was instead shaped by the needs of the Methodist Societies and their individual members. Manning’s description of the structure is apt: ‘Wesley arranged his hymn-book as a spiritual biography of the sort of person whom he called in the Preface a real Christian’ (1942, p. 11). Its status and renown is widely reflected in subsequent Methodist hymnals; through the nineteenth century, many of the emergent Methodist denominations republished it together with their own supplements, while the prefaces of the three authorised hymnals published since Methodist Union in 1932 each quote Wesley’s own preface, claiming their place in the line that it begun. Hempton argues that it is an embodiment of early Methodism:

If one were to choose one single artefact of eighteenth-century Methodism to lock in a canister for posterity that would somehow capture its essence, one defensible choice would be the 1780 Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists. For a movement that has attracted far more abuse than praise from scholars, the Collection of Hymns has commanded almost universal admiration. … The point is that well before the 1780 Collection of Hymns Methodism was a movement distinguished by its devotion to sacred songs.

(Hempton, 2009, p. 76)

Its significance seems to lie in the second part of the title: ‘for the use of the People called Methodists’. Unlike those collections that preceded it, this book is specifically designated for the Methodist movement; it is designed to meet the spiritual needs of Methodists both individually and collectively. The closest Wesley had previously come to such a title was the publication of Select Hymns: with Tunes Annext; Designed chiefly for the Use of the People called Methodists (1761), but the principal driving force here was musical. The earlier collections issued by Wesley

were therefore offered to all who thought of themselves as real Christians or Methodists, whatever their confessional or theological position might be (Arminian, Calvinist, or Moravian, within or without the Anglican Church), wherever people met together in societies for spiritual edification. Wesley, of course, thought that his Arminian Methodism within Anglicanism was the authentic Christian position, but others were free to use his collections of hymns if they so chose.

(Leaver, 2010, pp. 45–6)

Now, though, in 1780, Wesley provides a collection that, both in name and in his description of its purpose in the preface, is definitively Methodist. The precise meaning of this, and its significance for the subsequent development of authorised hymnody in Methodism, requires detailed consideration of the Collection ’s structure and its relationship with eighteenth-century Methodism’s societal organisation.

Experimental and practical divinity in the structure of the 1780 Collection

Wesley’s aphorism is crucial to understanding the structure he devised for the Collection. This was a book to be used regularly and frequently by ordinary Methodist people throughout the Connexion. It was meant to challenge, inspire, admonish, encourage, and sustain them through the joys and frustrations of their lives as Christian people in eighteenth-century Britain. Its practicality is grounded in its emphasis on Christian experience. Through the richness of Charles Wesley’s scriptural allusions, coupled with theological insights reflecting t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of musical examples
• List of tables
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Authorised hymnody: hymnals as expressions of doctrine and theology
• 2 An ecumenical hymnody
• 3 An evangelical hymnody
• 4 Methodism’s literary repertoire: form, language, editing, and theological expression
• 5 Musical repertoire
• 6 Methodist hymnody in practice
• 7 The influence of Methodist hymnody beyond British Methodism
• 8 Hymnody and Methodist identity
• Index