Customer Reviews

Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal

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Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal is the hymnal of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. It was published in 1993, and within a few years it was in use in over 90% of WELS congregations. The committee's goal was to "preserve, improve and enlarge" the Lutheran worship heritage, building on the materials in The Lutheran Hymnal (1941). The hymnal uses contemporary, and inclusive language, yet retains Elizabethan English in many hymns that could not be revised without violence to the text. I've been leading worship with it for over nine years, and have found it is very user friendly, yet very substantial in content. The hymns are not "dumbed down." Special features: sixty psalms with refrains, responsive prayers for the seasons, multiple settings (harmonizations) of tunes when the tune appears more than once, contemporary settings of Service of Word and Sacrament, Service of the Word, Evening Prayer (Vespers). The Common Service and Morning Praise (Matins) retain the tunes that were in TLH. ...and yes, it does have Amazing Grace (#379) and How Great Thou Art (#256)!

This innocuous, maroon-covered charmer was published specifically to meet the needs of the Milwaukee-headquartered Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), a smallish denomination only about five percent the membership of the two largest American Lutheran affiliations combined. It doesn't pass the politically-correct acid-test of other 1990s hymnals (Did it omit "Onward, Christian Soldiers"? Did it include "Spirit Song"?).

No, it doesn't have "Spirit Song." Not even "How Great Thou Art," which seems pretty shocking for a hymn which was translated from Swedish in the Fifties and has been showing up, translated, into all kinds of American hymnals since then--especially those with a heavy German/Scandinavian heritage close kin to the WELS denomination's *Christian Worship.*

But really--that's beside the point. To this reviewer it isn't a matter of what it lacks; there are plenty of middle-of-the-road hymnals out there but this one is relevant and appropriate to WELS members and clergy. The volume contains catechisms, confessions, creeds and service liturgies like the Eucharist. It's chock-full of hymns from Northern Germany and Scandinavia and considered as a bearer of heritage is certainly no more provincial than the current (1982) Episcopal hymnal, which bears even fewer of the best-known American hymns in favor of multiple versions of English tunes.

And for the rest of us, the more I look at the Hymnal, the more intriguing it can be. *Christian Worship* is a non-compromiser in its stance on its specifically Lutheran viewpoint on theology. By means such as fresher (and frequently more contemporary and accurate) translations from the German or minor alternative phrasing to text, the reader/singer will encounter subtle nuances more in accord with Martin Luther's doctrine of "Salvation Through Grace by Faith" specifcally that demonstrate that the process of salvation is, under Lutheran doctrine, less automatic and autonomous ("cheap grace" is the slur term) than were often seen to be the case in later Wesleyan/Methodist interpretations of salvation.

For example, the last line of verse one of "Rock of Ages" ends in most mainline hymnals with "Be of sin the double cure, Save from wrath and make me pure." The WELS version leaves no doubt that salvation is not something like a consumer good that can be ordered: "Be of sin . . . Cleanse me from its guilt and power." At this point I must say that other hymnals from other similarly-sized Lutheran denominations and affiliations in the Upper Midwest have their own take (or poetic license, if that metaphor isn't too presumptuous) in terms of theological guidance. For example, what is in the United Methodist Hymnal's version of "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" as "Let us find that second rest," winds up in the *Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary* from Mankato, MN as "Let us find Thy promised rest." (At this point, I've exhausted my theological knowledge ;) .)

Here's where it must be said that using alternate translations or even scrapping traditional in favor of alternative lyrics (if properly indicated as such) is no sin, not legal, intellectual or theological. These are matters of very old expressions of faith, not copyrighted Rogers & Hammerstein tunes. The public domain rules the old, old hymns.

The bound volume itself is very, well stitched, very "flippable" and easy to use, and with all the best back-of-the-book reference techniques. Pity it seems not to be on acid-free paper or else it would last a lot longer than its 62-year-old parent. Nonetheless, a bargain.

If WELS members are more than pleased with the 1993 hymnal, from what I know I quite agree. From my own situation and all mental trifling aside, I can think of situations in which congregations outside the fold might want to use such a dignified hymnal. (An appreciation of Lutheranic or Scandianavian/ German heritage certainly helps, of course.) Such a close-bound congregation might see the WELS hymnal as preferable to the type of hymnal catering to the burgeoning "unihymnals" deliberately marketed toward more rootless, homogenized or surburban fellowships--there are tradeoffs pro and con, of course.

Not a Nordic? Anyone with an interest in general liturgy or musicology would do well to take a look at the unique contributions of style, liturgics, heritage and outlook found in this handsome, distinctive and well-wrought tome.

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Our WELS pastor clued us in on what was coming with this hymnal in 1986.

Given the power of certain seminary professors, and the shakey hold WELS and its Wauwautosa theology have on Lutheran orthodoxy, it is not surprising that Christian Worship makes obeisance to just about everything coming down the pike these days, from its Church Growth title, to the treacle of Fanny Crosby ("Take the World, But Give Me Jesus"), to the feminist "inclusive" language (Hark the Herald Angels Sing now has "born that WE [not man] no more may die," O God Our Help in Ages Past has "soon bears US ALL [not her sons] away," etc., etc., etc.) and, of course, they sliced anthropos (men) off the Nicene Creed! No wonder the ELS quit its participation in the production of this hymnal and - with only 20,000 members - turned out a far better one. What a sad commentary on the naivete and poor judgment of these well-meaning Midwesterners. And the numbers of the WELS continue to decline.