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Comparative Hymnology
Here is some of the work Fr. Peter and I have done in Orthodox Purity.
Comparative Hymnology Pt. 1 by Fr. Peter
I am very concerned that not every Western hymn in English be tarred with the same brush. It seems to me that it is necessary that the origins of hymns, the theological contexts in which they were created and used, and the tunes associated with them all be considered.
If we take one or other of the ancient hymns for instance. This is a version of the ancient hymns from the Liturgy of St James which the British Orthodox Church sing on the occasion of every liturgy.
Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.
King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.
Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.
At His feet the six wingèd seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Alleluia, Lord Most High!
Now this is an ancient and entirely Orthodox text. The tune it is usually sung to is Picardy, which is certainly an old (at least 17th century) French folk tune, but it is not ancient. Nevertheless it seems to me to be a simple and non-emotional tune. I enjoy singing it and usually I am just stepping down out of the sanctuary as we sing 'As the Light of light descendeth'.
I would not want it to be thought that it is not possible to find Orthodox Western hymns which can be sung in English, even to Western tunes. I think that it would be very commendable for Orthodox Christians with high level skills in the use of poetic language in English to consider setting texts such as that give below, a hymn of St Severus, to an appropriate tune. These would be very much worthwhile singing because of their immense theological richness.
You who by enlightening baptism have been made new,
by deeds themselves keep such a reputation unto the end.
Do not wantonly take yourself back again to the old age of sins;
do not by any means follow after deeds of darkness.
You have rightly confessed one Lord and one Faith:
renounce the many doctrines of error that are falsified against the truth.
Behold! You have been armed with the mighty arms of the Spirit:
fight and struggle: and do not through sin make miserable treaties with your foes.
By calling the Holy Father in heaven, ‘Our Father’,
fix the hidden eyes of your mind constantly on heaven.
You have been hallowed by the divine laver;
you have been removed from all filth, pollution and stain.
Having once been buried and risen together with Christ who is God,
who once suffered and rose, think not at all of a second baptism.
Keep the treasure of immortality that has been bestowed on you with all carefulness,
offering praise to the good giver of this gift, according to the riches of His mercy.
Indeed this is almost poetic enough. I find it awe inspiring that these words of St Severus, written in Greek, translated into Syriac, and then translated into English are still so powerful and entirely Orthodox.
This is just so it is clear that the issue is NOT the use of English, or traditional English music. The issue is the content of the text and the nature of the music.
Father Peter
Comparative Hymnology Pt. 2 - John Apocalypse
-Orthodox hymns speak directly to the soul, and it is then the soul that sobers the mind, and the mind then controls the body to obey God.-
One
It is acceptable to integrate protestant hymns into the Orthodox Church? We shall seek this answer in our examination of protestant hymns and their purpose, from more of a philosophical approach. We will compare the purpose of each the Orthodox and protestant hymns in search of our answer. What exactly is the purpose of Orthodox hymns? St. Athanasius tells us that is is "medicine for healing the soul" and "repentance, or confession, or tribulation and trial befall us, or someone was persecuted or being plotted against, or he wants to sing praises and give thanks to the Lord." We see that the exaltation of ones self is never even hinted at, or any other sort of worldly emotion or feeling. Every bit of what St Athanasius says deals directly with the spiritual in some way. He also makes it clear that God is the focus, not the individual, that we willingly submit ourselves to Him and exalt and praise Him, not to feel good about ourselves and have fun. There is no question that Orthodox hymnology, and its rich history, is God centered, and scripturally accurate, often times being derived directly from scripture, with the purposes of preparing for communion, to purify the soul, to learn the theology of the church, and above all glorify God.
Two
The fundamental difference between Orthodox and protestant hymns are their purpose. The Orthodox hymns serve a spiritual purpose in preparing us for communion, purifying our souls, and to learn the theology of the church, as knowledge of the spiritual is spiritual. "My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6) All Orthodox hymns used in the church serve a specific spiritual purpose. Some of them we sing often, and some very rarely, like Golgotha which is sang once a year on Good Friday. These hymns are not meant to give the feeling of complacency or overcome with worldly emotion but rather to give sober minded spiritual enlightenment and guidance.
The protestant hymns are like audio pornography meant for self gratification and momentary pleasure. This is evidence by the worldly origins of protestant music and worship, having not historical root in the true church whatsoever. The purpose of these hymns is aimed at making the flesh complacent, to feel good, by playing on the natural weakness of the flesh, emotions. By creating a ambient trance like setting, the music and the words work directly on the individuals emotions, and when emotional, without sober mind, often times the individual can feel mild euphoria and be overcome with joy and happiness, removing the fear of God completely. Rather than fear of God, they have a feeling of peace and complacency since they are already saved, based on their belief in justification by faith alone, which is one of the pillars of protestantism, existing in every denomination. In place of the true God sits their own god, one they want to believe in, one who accepts everyone and everything so long as they believe. With this trance like atmosphere that peaks ones emotions, similar to that of drugs (and some act as if they are drunk, calling it "drunk in the spirit") coupled with a very simplistic theological view and much less demanding God, what is to stop this from breaking anyone down, especially our youth? It is much easier to "just believe" and go have fun every sunday, all the while you are free to be as worldly as you want, that is, as long as you believe in Jesus.
Three
St Basil teaches us that: "The work of praising attracts the service of the angels because this is a function of their existence. Thus they come closer to those who imitate in their ways." If protestant hymns are worldly and void of spiritual purpose , then this quote from St. Basil would not apply, in fact it may be just the opposite. To prove protestantism lacks true worship we need to look no further than scripture: "And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angels hand." (Rev. 8:3-4) This verse is describing Liturgical worship, the altar, the incense, the intercessory prayer, and of course we can logically assume that there was hymnology. Isaiah 6:2,3 "Above it stood the seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!" We repeat this very verse during our Liturgical worship as the cherubim do in heaven. What St John wrote in his revelation shows us that Liturgical worship is heavenly worship, and therefore the hymns that are sang in conjunction with Liturgical worship are also heavenly. None of this can be found within protestantism, and why? Because it is worldly with the idea of attracting people and not of pleasing God.
Four
Protestant hymns are just songs and therefore are harmless. Do we feel that our hymns are "just songs"? All music effects the individual, but only Orthodox Hymns have the ability to speak to our soul, while protestant hymns speak to the flesh. They are nothing more than worldly songs marketed to an unknowing people as Christian hymns. Full of "I" and "me" as well as other words directed for self gratification. They are merely momentary comfort for the self deluded, to help them feel good about themselves in order to justify their invalid and superficial belief of their own personal, self created god who serves them and not them serving Him. They have adopted worldly modern music to help attract people to their brand of Christianity. This is just another gimmick similar to that of a used car salesman. You see, protestantism is superficial, so it must constantly reinvent itself and or come up with a new gimmick to sell their product. This explains the 40,000 denominations (That we know of), that vastly differ from one another, and the multitude of parlor tricks employed to dazzle the unsuspecting crowd of people, anxious to see the next big thing. Speaking in tongues, being drunk in the spirit (see Brandon Barthrop of Red Letter Ministries) holy Laughter, faith healings, pastors beating people up to "heal" them (see Todd Bentley), and the list goes on and on. It is just a feel good gimmick followed by a feel good sermon where everyone goes to heaven, as long as you believe, and the pastor gets his money.
Five
The danger in exposing our youth to this is much worse than them being exposed to worldly music. The purpose is clear, and it is not spiritual, atleast in the Orthodox sense of spiritual. These songs make our youth feel good, many of whom would gladly accept the easier more feel good message than having to fast 210 days out of the year, or constantly work on their spiritual life. Like a gateway drug, it might seem harmless at first, but it certainly has the potential to open you up to a whole new world, one which many do not come back from. Orthodox hymns are like proper medicine for the spiritually sick while protestant hymns are a dangerous alternative that seems good on the outside, because it works our emotions, but is spiritual suicide.
By introducing these hymns we are not attracting youth, we are confusing them. They know it is not right and that protestantism is not Christian, and they are told otherwise. What do you think a logical conclusion would be? The path of least resistance of course, especially for the youth! If we can achieve the exact same thing in protestantism then why are we Orthodox? This is what the clergy must answer, those at least that feel this absurd behavior is Orthodox. If we are supposed to believe that protestantism is the same, we must omit this portion from the creed: "And in one Holy Universal Apostolic Church".
Amazing Grace - Comparative Hymnology by John Apocalypse
Written in 1779, amazing grace is possibly the most well known of all protestant hymns and it commonly accepted as being Christian. But let us look at this song in greater depth to see if focus of the song is on Christ (This includes, Theology, Doctrine, Church history, all pertaining to Christ). The lyrics of the song are as follows:
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.
Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promised good to me.
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.
Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.
When we've been here ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.
At first glance all seems well I have even seen people weeping while singing this song, giving the impression that it must be Christian to possess that kind of power. Notice almost every single line speaks of I, Me, My, or We. The subject of the sentence is not Christ, it is not Doctrine, nor any kind of Theology. It is not even about the grace to which the song is named for, the subject of this song is the self, more technically John Newton who wrote it.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
Newton is speaking of the "Amazing Grace" and how sweet it is, then goes on to say how it "saved" him. Why mention himself at all in a "Christian" song? Orthodox doctrine does not believe in "salvation in a moment" this is exclusively protestant, and therefore should not be sang in our church (and most likely is not).
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.
This verse is another example of just how different protestantism is from Orthodoxy. This verse states Newton's certainty of his own salvation, which would mean that he knows the mind of God, the book of life, and or is a judge of souls himself. In Orthodoxy we work towards our salvation and are never arrogant enough to proclaim our own salvation.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.
This again shows protestant doctrine and not Orthodox doctrine. Protestantism believes in salvation in a moment, that when one believes, then they are saved then and there. Singing this is a denial of the sacrament of baptism, which is nothing more than symbolism in protestantism.
Here is one of the oldest and revered protestant songs, and here we have just seen how un-Christian it actually is. Promoting protestant doctrines and denying the sacrament of baptism. This song certainly has no place in the Orthodox church, nor in the homes of any Christian. If this were to come from the lips of any Orthodox Christian, that person must be aware that they are proclaiming protestantism. THIS is how people can become perverted by allowing protestant songs in our Holy Church which is in no need of any new hymns.
Comparative Hymnology Pt. 1 by Fr. Peter
I am very concerned that not every Western hymn in English be tarred with the same brush. It seems to me that it is necessary that the origins of hymns, the theological contexts in which they were created and used, and the tunes associated with them all be considered.
If we take one or other of the ancient hymns for instance. This is a version of the ancient hymns from the Liturgy of St James which the British Orthodox Church sing on the occasion of every liturgy.
Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.
King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.
Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.
At His feet the six wingèd seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Alleluia, Lord Most High!
Now this is an ancient and entirely Orthodox text. The tune it is usually sung to is Picardy, which is certainly an old (at least 17th century) French folk tune, but it is not ancient. Nevertheless it seems to me to be a simple and non-emotional tune. I enjoy singing it and usually I am just stepping down out of the sanctuary as we sing 'As the Light of light descendeth'.
I would not want it to be thought that it is not possible to find Orthodox Western hymns which can be sung in English, even to Western tunes. I think that it would be very commendable for Orthodox Christians with high level skills in the use of poetic language in English to consider setting texts such as that give below, a hymn of St Severus, to an appropriate tune. These would be very much worthwhile singing because of their immense theological richness.
You who by enlightening baptism have been made new,
by deeds themselves keep such a reputation unto the end.
Do not wantonly take yourself back again to the old age of sins;
do not by any means follow after deeds of darkness.
You have rightly confessed one Lord and one Faith:
renounce the many doctrines of error that are falsified against the truth.
Behold! You have been armed with the mighty arms of the Spirit:
fight and struggle: and do not through sin make miserable treaties with your foes.
By calling the Holy Father in heaven, ‘Our Father’,
fix the hidden eyes of your mind constantly on heaven.
You have been hallowed by the divine laver;
you have been removed from all filth, pollution and stain.
Having once been buried and risen together with Christ who is God,
who once suffered and rose, think not at all of a second baptism.
Keep the treasure of immortality that has been bestowed on you with all carefulness,
offering praise to the good giver of this gift, according to the riches of His mercy.
Indeed this is almost poetic enough. I find it awe inspiring that these words of St Severus, written in Greek, translated into Syriac, and then translated into English are still so powerful and entirely Orthodox.
This is just so it is clear that the issue is NOT the use of English, or traditional English music. The issue is the content of the text and the nature of the music.
Father Peter
Comparative Hymnology Pt. 2 - John Apocalypse
-Orthodox hymns speak directly to the soul, and it is then the soul that sobers the mind, and the mind then controls the body to obey God.-
One
It is acceptable to integrate protestant hymns into the Orthodox Church? We shall seek this answer in our examination of protestant hymns and their purpose, from more of a philosophical approach. We will compare the purpose of each the Orthodox and protestant hymns in search of our answer. What exactly is the purpose of Orthodox hymns? St. Athanasius tells us that is is "medicine for healing the soul" and "repentance, or confession, or tribulation and trial befall us, or someone was persecuted or being plotted against, or he wants to sing praises and give thanks to the Lord." We see that the exaltation of ones self is never even hinted at, or any other sort of worldly emotion or feeling. Every bit of what St Athanasius says deals directly with the spiritual in some way. He also makes it clear that God is the focus, not the individual, that we willingly submit ourselves to Him and exalt and praise Him, not to feel good about ourselves and have fun. There is no question that Orthodox hymnology, and its rich history, is God centered, and scripturally accurate, often times being derived directly from scripture, with the purposes of preparing for communion, to purify the soul, to learn the theology of the church, and above all glorify God.
Two
The fundamental difference between Orthodox and protestant hymns are their purpose. The Orthodox hymns serve a spiritual purpose in preparing us for communion, purifying our souls, and to learn the theology of the church, as knowledge of the spiritual is spiritual. "My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6) All Orthodox hymns used in the church serve a specific spiritual purpose. Some of them we sing often, and some very rarely, like Golgotha which is sang once a year on Good Friday. These hymns are not meant to give the feeling of complacency or overcome with worldly emotion but rather to give sober minded spiritual enlightenment and guidance.
The protestant hymns are like audio pornography meant for self gratification and momentary pleasure. This is evidence by the worldly origins of protestant music and worship, having not historical root in the true church whatsoever. The purpose of these hymns is aimed at making the flesh complacent, to feel good, by playing on the natural weakness of the flesh, emotions. By creating a ambient trance like setting, the music and the words work directly on the individuals emotions, and when emotional, without sober mind, often times the individual can feel mild euphoria and be overcome with joy and happiness, removing the fear of God completely. Rather than fear of God, they have a feeling of peace and complacency since they are already saved, based on their belief in justification by faith alone, which is one of the pillars of protestantism, existing in every denomination. In place of the true God sits their own god, one they want to believe in, one who accepts everyone and everything so long as they believe. With this trance like atmosphere that peaks ones emotions, similar to that of drugs (and some act as if they are drunk, calling it "drunk in the spirit") coupled with a very simplistic theological view and much less demanding God, what is to stop this from breaking anyone down, especially our youth? It is much easier to "just believe" and go have fun every sunday, all the while you are free to be as worldly as you want, that is, as long as you believe in Jesus.
Three
St Basil teaches us that: "The work of praising attracts the service of the angels because this is a function of their existence. Thus they come closer to those who imitate in their ways." If protestant hymns are worldly and void of spiritual purpose , then this quote from St. Basil would not apply, in fact it may be just the opposite. To prove protestantism lacks true worship we need to look no further than scripture: "And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angels hand." (Rev. 8:3-4) This verse is describing Liturgical worship, the altar, the incense, the intercessory prayer, and of course we can logically assume that there was hymnology. Isaiah 6:2,3 "Above it stood the seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!" We repeat this very verse during our Liturgical worship as the cherubim do in heaven. What St John wrote in his revelation shows us that Liturgical worship is heavenly worship, and therefore the hymns that are sang in conjunction with Liturgical worship are also heavenly. None of this can be found within protestantism, and why? Because it is worldly with the idea of attracting people and not of pleasing God.
Four
Protestant hymns are just songs and therefore are harmless. Do we feel that our hymns are "just songs"? All music effects the individual, but only Orthodox Hymns have the ability to speak to our soul, while protestant hymns speak to the flesh. They are nothing more than worldly songs marketed to an unknowing people as Christian hymns. Full of "I" and "me" as well as other words directed for self gratification. They are merely momentary comfort for the self deluded, to help them feel good about themselves in order to justify their invalid and superficial belief of their own personal, self created god who serves them and not them serving Him. They have adopted worldly modern music to help attract people to their brand of Christianity. This is just another gimmick similar to that of a used car salesman. You see, protestantism is superficial, so it must constantly reinvent itself and or come up with a new gimmick to sell their product. This explains the 40,000 denominations (That we know of), that vastly differ from one another, and the multitude of parlor tricks employed to dazzle the unsuspecting crowd of people, anxious to see the next big thing. Speaking in tongues, being drunk in the spirit (see Brandon Barthrop of Red Letter Ministries) holy Laughter, faith healings, pastors beating people up to "heal" them (see Todd Bentley), and the list goes on and on. It is just a feel good gimmick followed by a feel good sermon where everyone goes to heaven, as long as you believe, and the pastor gets his money.
Five
The danger in exposing our youth to this is much worse than them being exposed to worldly music. The purpose is clear, and it is not spiritual, atleast in the Orthodox sense of spiritual. These songs make our youth feel good, many of whom would gladly accept the easier more feel good message than having to fast 210 days out of the year, or constantly work on their spiritual life. Like a gateway drug, it might seem harmless at first, but it certainly has the potential to open you up to a whole new world, one which many do not come back from. Orthodox hymns are like proper medicine for the spiritually sick while protestant hymns are a dangerous alternative that seems good on the outside, because it works our emotions, but is spiritual suicide.
By introducing these hymns we are not attracting youth, we are confusing them. They know it is not right and that protestantism is not Christian, and they are told otherwise. What do you think a logical conclusion would be? The path of least resistance of course, especially for the youth! If we can achieve the exact same thing in protestantism then why are we Orthodox? This is what the clergy must answer, those at least that feel this absurd behavior is Orthodox. If we are supposed to believe that protestantism is the same, we must omit this portion from the creed: "And in one Holy Universal Apostolic Church".
Amazing Grace - Comparative Hymnology by John Apocalypse
Written in 1779, amazing grace is possibly the most well known of all protestant hymns and it commonly accepted as being Christian. But let us look at this song in greater depth to see if focus of the song is on Christ (This includes, Theology, Doctrine, Church history, all pertaining to Christ). The lyrics of the song are as follows:
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.
Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promised good to me.
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.
Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.
When we've been here ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.
At first glance all seems well I have even seen people weeping while singing this song, giving the impression that it must be Christian to possess that kind of power. Notice almost every single line speaks of I, Me, My, or We. The subject of the sentence is not Christ, it is not Doctrine, nor any kind of Theology. It is not even about the grace to which the song is named for, the subject of this song is the self, more technically John Newton who wrote it.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
Newton is speaking of the "Amazing Grace" and how sweet it is, then goes on to say how it "saved" him. Why mention himself at all in a "Christian" song? Orthodox doctrine does not believe in "salvation in a moment" this is exclusively protestant, and therefore should not be sang in our church (and most likely is not).
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.
This verse is another example of just how different protestantism is from Orthodoxy. This verse states Newton's certainty of his own salvation, which would mean that he knows the mind of God, the book of life, and or is a judge of souls himself. In Orthodoxy we work towards our salvation and are never arrogant enough to proclaim our own salvation.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.
This again shows protestant doctrine and not Orthodox doctrine. Protestantism believes in salvation in a moment, that when one believes, then they are saved then and there. Singing this is a denial of the sacrament of baptism, which is nothing more than symbolism in protestantism.
Here is one of the oldest and revered protestant songs, and here we have just seen how un-Christian it actually is. Promoting protestant doctrines and denying the sacrament of baptism. This song certainly has no place in the Orthodox church, nor in the homes of any Christian. If this were to come from the lips of any Orthodox Christian, that person must be aware that they are proclaiming protestantism. THIS is how people can become perverted by allowing protestant songs in our Holy Church which is in no need of any new hymns.