Isaac Watts: His Life and Hymnody Emerging from the fiery trials of the Reformation, Protestant churches greatly desired to remain faithful to their battle cry of "sola scriptura" in every detail of faith and life. One implication of this was found in their view of church music. Most (Lutherans excepted, who turned to hymnody relatively early) believed that even in the area of song, the Bible provided sufficient revelation. John Calvin, in particular, was one champion of the notion that church music should consist of nothing more and nothing less than the Psalms of David. Most, in fact, who followed Calvin insisted "that God had provided His people with a set of inspired hymns in Holy Scripture, chiefly in the Psalms, and that it was not for us to pronounce His work incomplete or inadequate . . . ". The Psalms, therefore, were set to a metrical tune and used almost unaccompanied for the first few generations following the Reformation. The Bay Psalms Book -- also kn...
Comments
Post a Comment