Week 1: Hymns as Instruction as Well as Worship

This class explains how the hymns we sing each week as part of our regular worship can deepen appreciation for Christian truth (theology), the communion of saints in time (history), and the union of heart with head (affections). It will include attention to prominent hymn writers from the past and the present, as well as to the crucial contribution that music makes to what we sing. It will also show how a saying attributed to Plato plays out in churches: "When the mood of the music changes, the walls of the city shake."

This week Mary Hopper presented material about hymn texts from before 1500. If you have a copy of the Trinity Hymnal, you can use it to locate the hymns being discussed… and sung!