Dissenting Praise

Religious Dissent and the Hymn in England and Wales

Edited by Isabel Rivers and David L. Wykes

The first wide-ranging and fully researched study of dissenting hymns in England and Wales.
Provides comprehensive coverage of the subject, looking at dissenting hymns from the main denominations-Congregational, Baptist, Methodist, Unitarian from the mid 17th century to the early 20th century in compact, well referenced essays
Written by specialists in a range of disciplines: literature, history, theology, and music
Gives contextual information on the politics and religious issues of the period, making the collection accessible to students and reserachers from different disciplines
Includes a selected bibliography arranged by denomination and period

Dissenting Praise

Religious Dissent and the Hymn in England and Wales

Edited by Isabel Rivers and David L. Wykes

Description

The introduction of hymns and hymn-singing into public worship in the seventeenth century by dissenters from the Church of England has been described as one of the greatest contributions ever made to Christian worship. Hymns, that is metrical compositions which depart too far from the text of Scripture to be called paraphrases, have proved to be one of the most effective mediums of religious thought and feeling, second only to the Bible in terms of their influence.

This comprehensive collection of essays by specialist authors provides the first full account of dissenting hymns and their impact in England and Wales, from the mid seventeenth century, when the hymn emerged out of metrical psalms as a distinct literary form, to the early twentieth century, after which the traditional hymn began to decline in importance. It covers the development of hymns in the mid seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the change in attitudes to hymns and their growing popularity in the course of the eighteenth century, and the relation of hymnody to the broader Congregational, Baptist, Methodist, and Unitarian cultures of the nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries.

The chapters cover a wide range of topics, including the style, language, and theology of hymns; their use both in private by families and in public by congregations; their editing, publication and reception, including the changing of words for doctrinal and stylistic reasons; their role in promoting evangelical Christianity; their shaping of denominational identities; and the practice of hymn-singing and the development of hymn-tunes.

Dissenting Praise

Religious Dissent and the Hymn in England and Wales

Edited by Isabel Rivers and David L. Wykes

Introduction, Isabel Rivers and David L. Wykes
1. Hymns, Psalms, and Controversy in the Seventeenth Century, Elizabeth Clarke
2. The Hymns of Isaac Watts and the Tradition of Dissent, J. R. Watson
3. The Circulatino and Reception of Philip Doddridge's Hymns, Francoise Deconinck-Brossard
4. John Rippon and Baptist Hymnody, Ken Manley
5. Finding Successors to 'the Poet of the Sanctuary': Josiah Conder in Context, David M. Thompson
6. An Introduction to The Hymn Lover and its Author, Clyde Binfield
7. James Martineau and the Evolution of Unitarian Hymnody, Alan Ruston
8. The Music of Dissent, Nicholas Temperley
9. The Evolution of the Welsh Hymn, E. Wyn James

Dissenting Praise

Religious Dissent and the Hymn in England and Wales

Edited by Isabel Rivers and David L. Wykes

Author Information

Isabel Rivers obtained her BA at Girton College, Cambridge and her PhD at Columbia University. A former Reader at the University of Leicester and Reader and Professor at the University of Oxford, since 2004 she has been Professor of Eighteenth-Century English Literature and Culture in the School of English and Drama, Queen Mary, University of London, and Co-Director of the Dr Williams's Centre for Dissenting Studies. Her main interests are in the relations between literature, religion, philosophy, and the history of the book in the long eighteenth century.

David Wykes obtained his BSc at Durham and his PhD at Leicester, where he taught for many years. He has been Director of Dr Williams's Library, London, since 1998, and Co-Director of the Dr Williams's Centre for Dissenting Studies since it was established in September 2004. He is an Honorary Reader in the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary, University of London. His main interests are the history of religious dissent from the late seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century.

Contributors:

Clyde Binfield, University of Sheffield (Emeritus)
Elizabeth Clarke, Warwick University
Françoise Deconinck-Brossard, University of Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense (Emeritus)
E. Wyn James, Cardiff University
Ken R. Manley, Whitley College, University of Melbourne
Isabel Rivers, Queen Mary, University of London, and Dr Williams's Centre for Dissenting Studies
Alan Ruston, Independent Scholar
Nicholas Temperley, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Emeritus)
David Thompson, University of Cambridge (Emeritus)
J. R. Watson, University of Durham (Emeritus)
David Wykes, Dr Williams's Trust and Library, and Dr Williams's Centre for Dissenting Studies