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Wonderful Words of Life: Hymns in American Protestant History and Theology (Eerdmans, 2004)

Description
While many evangelical congregations have moved away from hymns and hymnals, these were once central fixtures in the evangelical tradition. This book examines the role and importance of hymns in evangelicalism, not only as a part of worship but as tools for theological instruction, as a means to identity formation, and as records of past spiritual experiences of the believing community.

Written by knowledgeable church historians, Wonderful Words of Life explores the significance of hymn-singing in many dimensions of American Protestant and evangelical life. The book focuses mainly on church life in the United States but also discusses the foundational contributions of Isaac Watts and other British hymn writers, the use of gospel songs in English Canada, and the powerful attraction of African-American gospel music for whites of several religious persuasions. Includes appendixes on the American Protestant Hymn Project and on hymns in Roman Catholic hymnals.

Editors
Richard J. Mouw (editor) is professor of Christian philosophy and president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Among his other books are Uncommon Decency: Christian Civility in an Uncivil World, The God Who Commands: A Study in Divine Command Ethics, and The Smell of Sawdust: What Evangelicals Can Learn from Their Fundamentalist Heritage.

Mark A. Noll (editor) is the Carolyn and Fred McManis Professor of Christian Thought at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. Noll is the author of numerous books and essays, and he has also served as an editor for The Reformed Journal and as a senior editor for Christianity Today.

Contributors:  Susan Wise Bauer, Thomas E. Bergler, Virginia Lieson Brereton, Esther Rothenbusch Crookshank, Kevin Kee, Richard J. Mouw, Mark A. Noll, Felicia Piscitelli, Robert A. Schneider, Rochelle A. Stackhouse, and Jeffrey VanderWilt.

Endorsements
"Few human acts can so powerfully fuse heads, hearts, hands, and voices like singing, and these authors show how multidimensional vocal praise has been.  For American Protestants, hymn singing is nearly sacramental; it also can be political.  Hymn singing expresses theological ideas, challenges common wisdom, defines and enacts community, and roots the gospel in culture.  Wonderful Words of Life models the kind of scholarship we need for every time and place where Christianity has gone, to understand the powerful effects of ordinary people singing praise to God."
—Joel Carpenter, Calvin College

"Collections of scholarly essays typically gather dust, their spines hardly cracked, their pages pristine and unread.  By contrast, copies of this superb book will soon be as well-thumbed as your grandmother's hymnal.  If you want to understand the evangelical stream of what gets called 'religion in practice' these days, there's no better place to start."
—John Wilson, Books & Culture

"Wonderful Words of Life is a stimulating collection that provides much-needed coverage and enrichment in a neglected sector of American religious experience.  The thoughtful and thought-provoking essays do not 'their own appointed limits keep,' but venture in illuminating ways beyond the American scene and beyond evangelical Protestantism.  Teachers of cultural and religious history will be indebted to these authors."
—William Hutchison, Harvard Divinity School

CICW Liturgical Studies Series with Eerdmans
This series is designed to promote reflection on the history, theology, and practice of Christian worship and to stimulate worship renewal in Christian congregations. Written by pastoral worship leaders from diverse communities and scholars from a range of disciplines, these volumes seek to nurture worship practices that are at once spiritually vital and theologically rooted. To find all the books in this series, go to Publications and under "Publisher," select "Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing."

Table of Contents and Excerpt from Eerdmans