The anatomy of hymnody by Austin C. Lovelace (1965).

Emphasizes the English hymn as a literary entity within denominational and historical contexts. The author sets forth a number of definitions for hymnody and congregational song, and then examines the development of the various forms in England and the United States. With a listing of works for further reading, an index to all hymns discussed, and chronology. ...valuable both for the historical information it provides and for its appreciative evaluation of the religious treasures enshrined in English-language hymns. --ADRIS NEWSLETTER

The hymns of Isaac Watts are a remarkable blend of biblical, theological, liturgical, poetic, musical, and practical dimensions, some of which have seldom been touched upon in previous studies of the hymn writer. In this book, you will find analyses of Watts’s texts from each of these perspectives. As shown by this study, it is not only these individual factors but their combination that made Watts’s hymns innovative but also effective and long lasting in his own time—and that makes many of them still useful and widely sung today.

Anne Steele (1717–1778) originally wrote her hymns to be sung in the Baptist congregation pastored by her father. The foremost female contemporary of hymn-writing giants Charles Wesley, John Newton, and William Cowper, her hymns are infused with spiritual sensitivity, theological depth, and raw emotion. She eventually published her hymns under the pseudonym, Theodosia, which means “God’s Gift.” She believed God had given her a gift to share. Steele’s work was warmly received in her own day. Pastor and publishing pioneer of the modern English hymnal, John Rippon, included more than fifty of her hymns in the various topical sections of his wildly successful Selection of Hymns. Rippon’s hymnal was popular on both sides of the Atlantic, but was especially influential during the nineteenth-century revival and renewal of English Particular Baptists. This book introduces Steele’s hymns in the context of her life and times and of Rippon’s hymnal. It illustrates that Steele’s approach to hymn-writing is a model of biblical spirituality. Each hymn as printed in Rippon’s hymnal, and thus sung by congregations and used as devotional literature, is considered. The sung theology of these congregations is a gift to the church universal and worth rediscovering in the twenty-first century.

Examining nineteenth-century British hymns for children, Alisa Clapp-Itnyre argues that the unique qualities of children's hymnody created a space for children's empowerment. Unlike other literature of the era, hymn books were often compilations of many writers' hymns, presenting the discerning child with a multitude of perspectives on religion and childhood. In addition, the agency afforded children as singers meant that they were actively engaged with the text, music, and pictures of their hymnals. Clapp-Itnyre charts the history of children’s hymn-book publications from early to late nineteenth century, considering major denominational movements, the importance of musical tonality as it affected the popularity of hymns to both adults and children, and children’s reformation of adult society provided by such genres as missionary and temperance hymns. While hymn books appear to distinguish 'the child' from 'the adult', intricate issues of theology and poetry - typically kept within the domain of adulthood - were purposely conveyed to those of younger years and comprehension. Ultimately, Clapp-Itnyre shows how children's hymns complicate our understanding of the child-adult binary traditionally seen to be a hallmark of Victorian society. Intersecting with major aesthetic movements of the period, from the peaking of Victorian hymnody to the Golden Age of Illustration, children’s hymn books require scholarly attention to deepen our understanding of the complex aesthetic network for children and adults. Informed by extensive archival research, British Hymn Books for Children, 1800-1900 brings this understudied genre of Victorian culture to critical light.

Hymns as a potential tool of theological contextualisation have never been fully explored. This study looks at this function of hymnody in relation to Mexican culture. A sample of hymnody used by evangelicals of different traditions was selected to examine its theology and to compare which kind of hymns or songs were more reliable and appropriate to communicate the evangelical faith in the Mexican context.