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Our hymn writers and their hymns

Hymn lovers’ gift

OUR HYMN WRITERS AND THEIR HYMNS
By Faith Cook
Evangelical Press. 400 pages. £14.95
ISBN 0 85234 585 2

It is good to welcome another book about hymns written by someone who knows what they are.

Faith Cook’s distinctive approach gives us 13 main chapters detailing one hymnwriter each, from Isaac Watts to Fanny Crosby. An opening chapter summarises everything before Watts; a penultimate one covers ‘other hymnwriters’, and a final ‘Hymns Today’ virtually means the last century.

Although much mainstream material is covered elsewhere, each generation needs fresh reminders. Many readers will value the short biographies of the chosen ‘top 13’ as well as some gentle analysis of their writing. In rediscovering William Williams we are warned that ‘the devotional fervour and depth of experience expressed in such hymns could never be the result of mere study and skill with words’; but study and skill sometimes distinguish the inspiring from the merely useful.

One drawback of this approach is that while Hart, Bonar and Crosby enjoy several pages each, some of our greatest authors get only a few lines of chapter 15. Having glimpsed Neale and Winkworth as translators early on, we meet Anne Steele only as the book nears its conclusion, and Ann Griffiths not at all. Mrs. Alexander (who doesn’t rate a chapter) and Frances Havergal (who does) are in trouble for being Anglicans; so it is no surprise that Herbert, Heber and Keble are bypassed altogether. So are some ‘one-hit’ wonders; but Newton, Cowper and Lyte receive generous and wise treatment; the context of the hymns is often helpfully explained.

I would have valued a bolder grasping of the current hymn-scene from an author who can see it in some kind of perspective; Frank Houghton and Timothy Dudley-Smith are rightly honoured, David Preston tantalisingly quoted, but the cautious inclusion of Kendrick and Townend is surprising. Is Margaret Clarkson really the only woman writer since Fanny Crosby worth mentioning? Michael Saward’s ‘Lord of the cross of shame’ appeared in Youth Praise not Psalm Praise. The contemporary names are either evangelicals or new-church charismatics (where music sets the agenda) and all but one are British; that’s fine if you realise how much more you are missing.

The layout is attractive with good illustrations, clear indexing, further reading suggestions, and minimal use of capital letters. An ideal gift for Baptists who love hymns, or may yet learn to.

Christopher Idle,
Hon. Assistant Minister at Holy Trinity Church, Bromley Common