A literary study of the calvinistic and deistic implications in the hymns of Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, and William Cowper
Roth, Herbert John
Roth, Herbert John
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1978
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Abstract
Perhaps more than any other literary genre, the English hymn is a primary source of the religious thought and expression of the eighteenth century. It was, in essence, the religious pulse of the eighteenth century. Furthermore, a knowledge of the hymn and its historical and literary significance gives a broader perspective to eighteenth-century thought as revealed primarily in the writings of Swift, Pope, and Johnson. To my knowledge, there has never been any investigation concerning the unusual bl end of Calvinism and Deism apparent in many of the hymns of Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, and William Cowper. It will be the purpose of this study to examine all of the published hymns of these writers and to record concrete examples of this phenomenon. Chapter I traces the origin of Christian hymnody to 1700. The second chapter is primarily a discussion of the religious thought in the eighteenth century as reflected in the writings of Samuel Johnson, John Locke, John Wesley, Anthony Collins, Matthew Tindal, David Hume, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, the Third Earl of Shaftesbury, and Joseph Addison. The remaining chapters (III, IV, V) are an examination of the hymns of Watts, Wesley, and Cowper and their Calvinistic and Deistic implications. Alexander Pope ' s famous dictum, -"What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed," is applicable to the eighteenth-century hymn as well as to Pope's "Essay on Criticism," Gray' s "Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard," Johnson's "Vanity of Human Wishes," or Goldsmith's "Deserted Village." At the turn of the century, the story of man's fall and redemption found expression in hymns of human composition which influenced the religious thinking of countless thousands of Christians and non-Christians. It was, however, the hymns of Watts, Wesley, and Cowper that left the greatest impact on the religious thought of the eighteenth century. Many of Watts' more popular hymns, such as "With Reverence Let the Saints Appear," "The Lord Jehovah Reigns," "Praise Ye the Lord," "Lord in the Morning," and "O God, Our Help" illustrate the awe and majesty of God, and reflect the traditional conservative Anglican concept typical of most Christians during the first-half of the eighteenth century. In his hymns Watts externalizes the Christian experience: he is more concerned with the outward manifestations of God' s love than with his own depraved condition. Also, it is Watts who comes closest to the Augustian definition of a hymn as a song of praise to God. Wesley, on the other hand, epitomizes the evangelical spirit of Anglicanism predominate in England during the second-half of the eighteenth century. Therefore, Wesley's hymns are essentially didactic, emphasizing primarily the depravity of man and his need of a Redeemer. In contrast to both Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley, Cowper's hymns have neither the cosmic grandeur of Watts nor the evangelical zeal of Wesley, but express a modified Calvinistic interpretation of man's spiritual dilemma. In spite of numerous poetic imperfections in the eighteenth-century English hymns, they reflect a religious excitement apparent in no other literary genre. Anglicanism, both in its Arminian and Calvinistic form, is expressed in the hymns of Watts. Methodism, both in its Arminian and Calvinistic form, is expressed in Wesley's hymns. And, for some inexplicable reason, Shaftesburian Deism was not ignored completely by the major English hymnists .
Contents
Subject
Subject(s)
Watts, Isaac, 1674-1748
Wesley, Charles, 1707-1788
Cowper, William, 1731-1800
Hymns, English
Wesley, Charles, 1707-1788
Cowper, William, 1731-1800
Hymns, English
Research Projects
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Journal Issue
Genre
Dissertation
Description
Format
v, 176 leaves, bound
Department
English