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The Hymn Question in the Christian Reformed Church
Bert Polman

This article originally appeared in Origins the Historical Magazine of the Archives of the Hekman Library at Calvin College (Vol. XVI, Number 1, 1998) and is used with permission.

Ever since congregational singing was instituted as a prime element of Protestant worship during the time of the Reformation, there have been discussions and major debates in various segments of the church about the role of hymns. Psalmody and hymnody became complementary partners in early Lutheranism; psalmody alone became a hallmark of early Calvinists; hymnody became customary in Anabaptist communities. As time passed, denominations which adopted psalmody primarily or exclusively were often faced with the question of what to do with hymns. Were they suitable for use only at home, or could they be incorporated into Sunday worship?

The founders of the Christian Reformed Church in North America were primarily psalm singers, in accord with their Calvinist tradition. But, unlike a few denominations which sprang from this same heritage and limited themselves strictly to psalmody, the Christian Reformed people traditionally included in their services the singing of a few hymns and liturgical texts in addition to metrical psalms.

This same mixture of psalms and hymns was true already when the Calvinist Reformation was first established in the Netherlands. In 1566, Peter Datheen included the Decalogue, the three Lukan canticles, two settings of the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and five prayer hymns in his De CL Psalmen Davids. The Church Order emerging from the Synod of Dordt in 1619 specified that beyond the psalms only the Decalogue, the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, and the three Lukan canticles should be sung; all other hymns should be abolished. In actual practice, however, a few Lutheran chorales remained in popular use in the northern and eastern Dutch provinces. Thus, "O Lam Godes Unschuldich"1 was used during the Lord's Supper in Drenthe and Groningen, and during the eighteenth century, the great Easter leise "Christus is opgestanden"2 and was still known in Holland.3 The Dutch Psalter of 1773 also included the Decalogue, the Lukan canticles, the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, and five prayer hymns.

Reformed people in Holland witnessed the introduction of a collection of 192 hymns, the Evangelische Gezangen, in 1806. The Reville, or "Great Awakening" movement, also began to take root in the Netherlands around this time, and its followers opposed both the reorganization of the Dutch Reformed Church into a state church in 1816 and the liberal theology of its church leaders. A formal secession or Afscheiding, occurred in 1834, for which the singing of hymns was cited as one reason. In the next decade a number of these Dutch seceders immigrated to Michigan and Iowa, where they initially joined the Reformed Church in America. However, in 1857 they separated again and formed the Christian Reformed denomination, citing as one of the reasons for separation the fact that the Reformed Church in America sang hymns.

Thus the early Christian Reformed settlers in North America brought with them a psalmodic tradition which did permit a few hymns to be sung. But popular opinion among these pioneers ran against hymnody. The founders of the Christian Reformed Church could not easily forget that the Secession of 1834 in the Netherlands and the break with the Reformed Church in America in 1857 were, in part at least, the result of opposition to hymns. The anti-hymn sentiments of these pioneers became a constituent feature of their ethnic and cultural isolation in the new world.

By the late 1870s, voices were raised in support of hymns. In a Dutch Reformed journal, A. Brummelkamp Jr. had penned "Fourteen Reasons" in favor of hymns.4 A son of one of the fathers of the Secession of 1834, Brummelkamp adduced the following arguments:

  1. that the Scriptures speak of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs as separate genre.
  2. that a healthy spiritual life warrants the use of hymns both in and out of the church.
  3. that hymns are essential to the celebrative character of festival Sundays.
  4. that those who oppose hymns on the grounds of the Secession do not rightly understand the Secession.
  5. that an improved volume of hymns would demonstrate that the criticisms of the Evangelische Gesangen are not valid.
  6. that a new volume of hymns could be artistically superior to the Evangelische Gesangen.
  7. that the few good hymns in the Gesangen should be rescued from their "evil company and put into a new volume with other classic hymns.
  8. that the understandable desire for hymns in Sunday schools, day schools, and young people's societies be satisfied with a collection of quality hymns rather than with just whatever appears on the market.
  9. that there are many hymns, both old and new, which congregations should not ignore.
  10. that in the absence of a good hymnal, new hymns of poor quality might be prepared, as the classic hymnody would be unknown.
  11. that the hymnic testimony of the apostles, church fathers, reformers, and martyrs should not be stopped in the church now.
  12. that many other denominations use hymns.
  13. that the Synod of Utrecht in 1877 agreed in principle to the singing of hymns.
  14. that the above reasons can be easily expanded but not reduced.

In contrast to similar discussions in previous centuries about the use of hymns in other denominations, Brummelkamp's discussion does not refer to the time-honored use of hymns during the Lord's Supper.

As the Dutch church papers were read with keen interest by the immigrant settlers, Brummelkamp's article aroused several responses. G. Arnsing commented favorably on the "Fourteen Reasons" and stated that hymns were already being sung in Sunday schools, societies, and the homes of Christian Reformed people.5 K. Van Leeuwen favored the proper use of hymns along with the continued use of psalms.6 In return, Christian Reformed De Wachter editor G. Hemkes condemned hymns, claimed hymns were not inspired--as were the psalms--and that hymns were associated with liberal theology in the Netherlands.7

This initial discussion of hymns in the Christian Reformed press centered on hymns in the Dutch language. In the next decade, however, two bodies of hymnody were approved for limited, regional use in Christian Reformed congregations. German-speaking Reformed congregations had joined the denomination, and their collection of 355 Gesangen were allowed "for the present" only in what became known as Classis Ostfriesland.8 English-speaking congregations of the True Reformed Protestant Dutch Church joined the Christian Reformed Church in 1890, and their collection of 192 hymns for the Heidelberg Catechism, derived from the Reformed Church in America, were approved for use only in the new Classis Hackensack. It is one of the ironies of Christian Reformed history that the denomination was born as a result of several schisms caused in part because of hymn singing but that the use of hymns increased in the denomination due to church mergers!

The focus soon shifted to English-language hymns for the entire denomination. A report on a Christian-school convention introduced another discussion on hymns in schools, homes, and churches.9 The English-language hymnals associated with the American Sunday-school movement quickly gained popularity in the Christian Reformed church. As the denomination gradually shed its blanket of isolation and became more Americanized, the commercially available American hymnals filled a void.

The American gospel hymns and Sunday-school hymnody were so popular in the denomination that the Christian Reformed Synod of 1898 "deplored" the use of non-approved hymns in Sunday schools and church societies and recommended "Bible" songs, a small collection of biblical paraphrases published by the United Presbyterian Church.10 In 1904, synod reaffirmed its opposition to the use of any nonapproved hymns in Sunday schools and services of worship.11 The approved hymns then referred to the few hymns in the Dutch Psalter, the German hymns approved in 1883 only for singing in Classis Ostfriesland, and the English Catechism hymns approved in 1890 only for use in Classis Hackensack. No significant body of English-language hymnody was approved at that time for the denomination as a whole.

In spite of these synodical rulings, English hymns were commonly used in Catechism classes, Sunday schools, singing schools, youth societies, and also in some church services--in hymn sings associated with evening services in some congregations. The synodical Committee on Uniformity in Public Praise surveyed the practices of the various congregations in 1908 and compiled an astounding list of hymnals then in use in the denomination, in addition to some Dutch and Dutch-American hymnals, many titles such as Gospel Hymns, Sunday-School Hymns, Church Hymns and Gospel Songs, Gospel Choir, and Pentecostal Hymns are to be found in this list.12

Those who favored the use of hymns found strong support from some leaders in the Christian Reformed denomination. Calvin Seminary professor William Heyns argued for hymns on biblical, pastoral, and liturgical grounds in his teaching of future ministers for the church.13 William Bode read an essay favoring hymns for a conference of Christian Reformed ministers; expanded for publication, this paper became widely known at the time.14 Still, the officials of the denomination were slow to change, and even in 1918, synod declined to provide a "suitable volume of hymns for Sunday school use."15 As late as 1926, synod decreed that the 1914 Psalter be republished without the Catechism hymns because the inclusion of these hymns was contrary to the Church Order and "deceptive, as well as promoting the use of [other] hymns."16

It was not until the late 1920s that the pro-hymn movement really gained momentum. In four reasonable and cautious Banner editorials, Dr. Henry Beets reviewed the history of hymns in the Dutch tradition and in the Christian Reformed Church to date.17 Warning that hymnody should not replace psalmody, Beets suggested that a synodical committee be appointed to make a careful study of hymns and their potential use in the worship of the church.

That kind of study came to Synod 1928 in the form of an overture from

Classis Grand Rapids East. Appealing first to Scripture, the overture claimed that hymns were not forbidden. Then the Church Order was quoted to prove that a few hymns had always been approved and to argue that adding more hymns was merely a "broadening of the principle." Dutch church leaders such as the pietist Gijsbertus Voetius and the popular Abraham Kuyper were cited in support of hymns.18 However, the same synod received another study on the hymn question from Classis Zeeland. This overture claimed that the introduction of more hymns would eventually lead to the total neglect of the psalms and that "the leaven of Arminianism" in English hymnody would lead to the corruption of Calvinist doctrine in the denomination.19

After the advisory committee assigned to the psalm-hymn issue of that year's synod reviewed the various overtures on the question, it made the following classic understatement:

There is need for definite action. Our people are using hymns. Our churches in some localities sing hymns in song services held immediately before the public worship. The demand for hymns has gained great momentum. Your Committee feels that Synod should exercise a guiding hand before this demand can no longer be controlled.20

After much discussion, synod agreed that there were no principial objections to the singing of hymns but that a committee should study this matter thoroughly "because of objections which are of a historical nature" and submit a sufficient number of suitable hymns for examination at the following synod.21 Though several more years would go by before the implications of this principial decision were completely realized, this decision in 1928 stands as a great landmark in the history of church music in the Christian Reformed Church.

The study report requested by Synod 1928 was written by Professor William Heyns of Calvin Seminary; it was submitted to Synod 1930 along with the texts of 197 hymns.22 Heyns repeated the arguments which had previously been advanced in favor of hymns and reviewed the recent discussions on hymns in the Reformed Church of the Netherlands. Then he treated the various objections to hymns which had been raised at the previous Christian Reformed synod, pointing out that most of these objections were not against hymns as such but should serve as admonitions to the church to be careful and selective in its use of hymnody. The various arguments were further discussed, and a final agreement was reached to amend the Church Order to permit the use of hymns.23 In 1932 the following revision of Article 69 of the Church Order was adopted:

In the churches only the 150 psalms of David and the collection of hymns for church approved and adopted by Synod, shall be sung. However, while singing the psalms in divine worship is a requirement, the use of the approved hymns is left to the freedom of the churches.24

Having heard clearly the warnings that the use of hymns may lead to the neglect of the psalms, synod urged local consistories "to see to it" that Psalter verses be memorized in Catechism classes and Sunday schools.25 The following synod authorized the Dutch-speaking congregations in the denomination to use the hymns recently adopted by the Gereformeerde Kerk en Nederland.26           

Thus the hymn question was officially settled: The entire Christian Reformed Church was now permitted to sing hymns. The inconsistency of the earlier decision--which permitted some hymns only in Classis Hackensack and in Classis Ostfriesland--was now finally resolved. The change in thc Church Order to permit "approved" hymns was, in effect, a de jure sanction of the de facto practice in many congregations. By the time this change was ratified in 1934, the denomination's first Psalter Hymnal was in its final stages of  preparation.27

Endnotes

1. A Dutch translation of Nicolaus Decius's German version of the "Agnus Dei" from the mass, O Lamm Gottes, Unschuldig (1531).

2. A Dutch translation of the German "Christ ist erstanden," which dates from the twelfth century and which was derived originally from the Latin sequence "Victimae paschali laudes." Leisen were pre-Reformation chorales which contained a refrain line borrowed from the "Kyrie eleison" of the mass.

3. Cornelis P. Van Andel, Tussen de Regels, De Samenhang van Kerkgeschiedenis en Kerklied (The Hague, 1968) 155, and A. G. Soeting, "Kerkgezang in de Lage Landen" in Compendium bij het Liedboek (Amsterdam, 1977) 27-28.

4. "Veertien Redenen Waarom de Ivoering van een Bundel Gezangen in onze Kerk Wenschelijk Schijnt," in De Vrije Kerk Feb. 1878: 56-59.

5. Letters," De Wachter 25 Apr. 1878: 1.

6. "Reflectie," De Wachter 23 May 1878: 3.

7. Editorial in De Wachter (September 26, 1878), 2-3.

8. Acts of Synod 1883, 10, and Acts of Synod 1884, 8.

9. In De Wachter (September 12, 1888), 2-3.

10. Acts of Synod 1898, 68.

11. Acts of Synod 1904, 41.

12. Acts of Synod 1908, 47-49.

13. Liturgiek (Holland, MI, 1903), 126-28.

14. Praise Service and the Christian Reformed Church (Grand Rapids, MI, 1911).

15. Acts of Synod 1918, 44.

16. Acts of Synod 1926, 45. When the denomination approved its first English-language Psalter in 1914, the Catechism hymns in English previously approved for use only in Classis Hackensack were bound into the same volume and thus available to all the congregations that began to use the 1914 Psalter. Following the 1926 decision, the 1914 Psalter was reprinted in 1927 without these Catechism hymns.

17. The Banner 14, 21, and 28 Oct. and 4 Nov. 1927.

18. Agenda for Synod 1928, xxviii-xxxi.

19. Agenda for Synod 1928, xxxiii.

20. Acts of Synod 1928, 46-47.

21. Acts of Synod 1928, 48.

22. "Report on the Hymn Question and the Text of Approved Hymns," Agenda for Synod 1930 (Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Reformed Publishing House, 1930).

23. Acts of Synod 1930, 97.

24. Acts of Synod 1932, 135.

25. Acts of Synod 1932, 136.

26. Acts of Synod l934, 147-48.

27. The history of the Psalter Hymnal is recounted in my article "The Psalter Hymnal from Its Dutch Roots to the 1987 Edition," in Origins 7.1 (1989), 39-42.

Bert Polman is a professor of music at Redeemer College in Ancaster, Ontario. His Ph.D. dissertation was entitled Church Music and Liturgy in the Christian Reformed Church of North America (1981).