A Word on Hymnody to the "Evangelical Lutheran Congregations of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession"

How the LCMS can reclaim her confessional identity by cultivating her true hymnic heritage as a confessional Lutheran Church.

Beloved Lutheran hymnwriters: the venerable Paul Gerhardt (left), Philip Nicoali (top right), and Johann Heermann (bottom right). All three men, and their substantively rich and theologically faithful hymns, have left an undeniably permanent mark on Lutheran hymnody. Gerhardt is especially known for some of the most remarkable, beloved hymns of the Lutheran Church.

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As I perused cph.org for a copy of C.F.W. Walther’s Hymnal—an invaluable hymnic asset for the the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) and other confessional Lutheran synods—I found that the full name of the hymnal is “Walther’s Hymnal: Church Hymnbook for Evangelical Lutheran Congregations of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession.” While this was never an official name of the LCMS, which in Walther’s day was named the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, I find that it nevertheless speaks to a conspicuous void in the LCMS—one which may be filled and rectified in large part by our hymnody.

The several issues facing the LCMS—and the broader corpus of American Lutheranism—are inherently theological issues. Doctrine is defined and systematized by theology, and practice is characterized by and flows from doctrine. Sadly, our theological woes are not limited to a particular doctrine or specific practice. For many, a paradigmatic and systematic change in theological thought is required to bridge the theological gap between confessional and non-confessional Lutherans and correct the errors that have taken root in the LCMS.

Though the issues plaguing the Synod are systematic by nature, I propose that these issues may be fixed—some of them eradicated—by a shift in our hymnic constitution as Lutherans. If we, as many in the Lutheran Church have attempted to do, reclaim our hymnic heritage, many of the theological issues plaguing our beloved Synod, which are made manifest in doctrinal and practical errors, will be dispensed.

In the spirit of transparency, I must note that I am no musician. My historical and practical knowledge concerning music is woefully limited. I did not grow up playing an instrument, singing, or composing music. Nevertheless, man has an intrinsic appreciation for the beauty of music. Each man will find within himself a variable degree of musical skill if he has works to cultivate it. It is a skill toward which every man may work—it is not a talent with which only a select few are born. Music is among the greatest gifts God has given to mankind. The sainted Luther is quoted as saying, “Next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise.”

Thus, hymnody is not for the oligarchic minority of able musicians. Hymnody is the collective voice of the Church. It is the confessional anthem of the saints on earth and the saints at rest. Hymnody is God’s gift to His people. God’s people use the Church’s hymnody to praise, teach, and confess—praise the holy name of Jesus, teach His suffering, death, and resurrection, and confess the true doctrines of the Church.

The problematic hymnic custom of modern American Lutheranism lies in our abandonment of our Lutheran hymnic heritage. American Lutherans have basely rejected the timeless works of our Lutheran forefathers. The works of Gerhardt, Speratus, Spangler, Rist, Heermann, Ringwaldt, Olearius, Selnecker, Crüger, Franck, Nicolai, Neumark—to name, somewhat facetiously, only a few—have been left in the past. Their work may still be enjoyed as a novelty musical antique, but no longer is their work the hymnic norm. American Lutherans have welcomed a novel generation of hymnwriters—Wesley, Dudley-Smith, Spurgeon, Watts, Stuempfle, Bonar, and others—whose hymns suffocate the hymnic tradition of the Lutheran Church.

Often, this occurs at the behest of Lutherans.

In fairness, this shift has not taken place among the laity simply because the laity desired it. Much of the theological degradation that has wrecked the Lutheran Church has occurred because our leaders have permitted it. As theologians shift, so also does the next generation of pastors. When pastors go astray, the flock may follow. The trend is vicious, and the cycle often seems unbreakable. Such is the case in Lutheranism’s hymnic landscape. As a “new style” emerges, the old seems to be entirely and irrevocably abandoned.

It goes without notation that the hymnody of American Lutheranism has been weakened. Many Lutherans, among the ranks both of the clergy and the laity, yearn to sing the Methodist and Baptist anthems of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—a parasitic itch to which even the LCMS is unavoidably prone. Even The Lutheran Hymnal (TLH), widely considered the LCMS’s last remaining bastion of faithful hymnody, fell short by a few marks. The adoption of interdenominational is evident even in TLH. Unfortunately, every hymnal since TLH has declined, each hymnal a more vapid reminder of our hymnic deterioration.

Yet the insufferable state of Lutheran hymnody is not merely adoptive. It has become genetic. This hymnic disability affects even a large camp in the modern school of Lutheran hymnwriting. Modern Lutheran hymnwriters take unmistakable inspiration from American Protestant hymnwriters. The nineteenth and twentieth century hymnic tradition has made a home for itself even among many of the Lutheran hymnwriters of our day.

Alongside this musical regression, the evisceration of Lutheran doctrine and practice in American Lutheranism has occurred, creating widespread theological disarray amongst American Lutherans. While it is difficult to discern whether or not the shift in one created a shift in the other, it is inarguable that the loss of our hymnic heritage has driven American Lutheranism further into its theological ineffectuality.

Hymns are confessions. Hymns are doctrines put into verses, sung in a meter, and beautified by the array of Christian voices coming together to make the eternal confession of Christendom. They are not placeholders or space-fillers. Hymnody is neither the fluid expression of changing times, nor an amalgamative collection of songs. Hymns are enduring testaments to the eternal faith of the Christian Church. Hymns must teach and confess—and do so faithfully, purely, and properly.

If it is true that hymns are confessional statements, why, then, dare we sing hymns that originate from different confessions of faith? Should there be any room in Lutheran hymnals for Methodist hymns? Must we include Baptist anthems in our hymnic tradition? Many, unfortunately, enthusiastically respond in the affirmative—some on the grounds that interdenominational commingling of hymns purports Christian unity, while others on the grounds that substantive weakness does not indicate theological error.

On the first point, whatever purported unity is achieved by including non-Lutheran hymns in our hymnals is a false unity. Such a unity leads the Church farther from doctrinal purity. Christian unity is laudable, commendable, and desirable—indeed, it is good and right for the Church to desire and seek unity, but only on confessionally faithful grounds. Unity must only be sought when it is founded on the infallible teachings of Scriptures. Christian unity sought apart from doctrinal purity, which flows from God’s Word, is not true unity—rather, it is a deceptive fantasy.

On the second point, substantive weakness may not indicate theological error per se, but it certainly indicates a theological ineffectualness that lends itself handily to doctrinal error. The lack of substantive hymns—that is, hymns which contain clear, vivid, illustrative, unmistakable confessions of faith, all of which are doctrinally pure and sound—either stems from or leads to theological impropriety. When the Church ceases to sing substantively rich hymns, its doctrines and practices invariably suffer.

Here, the second point deserves considerable attention. One might cry foul that this unfairly eliminates the inclusion of non-Lutherans hymns. That is the point. Non-Lutheran hymns originate from other confessions. This does not necessarily inhibit sound doctrine, but it leads to a commingling of confessions. Moreover, perverse doctrines are often difficult to detect. Included in our hymnody, these hymns find in us an unknowingly willing home.

Hymnody is mimetic. We imitate—and practice—what we sing. Every doctrine, whether blatant or subtle, will be mirrored in our daily walk of faith. The subtleties of American Protestant doctrine quietly corrupt the pure evangelistic doctrine of the Lutheran Church. The Baptist doctrine of choice, the Methodist remnants of revivalism, and the “non-denominational” inclination toward contemporary music all permeate non-Lutheran hymns. These doctrines and theological systems of thought have weakened the substantial identity of Lutheran hymnody. Many of the hymns we have incorporated into our tradition do not mirror the sound doctrine we have been given.

It must also be noted that not all hymns written by Lutheran hymnwriters are fit for use in Lutheran hymnals. Some hymns—and hymnwriters—are objectively better than others. It may, in fairness, even be granted that some non-Lutheran hymns are better than some Lutheran hymns, to which we must respond that none of those hymns ought to be included in Lutheran hymnals. The standard to which hymns must be judged is not merely denominational, but confessional. We must not only look for hymns written by Lutheran hymnwriters, but hymns written for the Lutheran confession.

The can of worms opened by this assertion is far too large to be explored in this article. Should I promise to write a detailed article on this point, I will attempt to make good on that promise—but what must be said in the interim is that the substance of a hymn matters, and the metrics by which we judge these hymns, whether written by Lutheran hymnwriters or not, are the same. The confessional standard to which every hymn must be held and by which every hymn must be judged is the sound doctrine espoused in the Lutheran Confessions, supplemented by the timeless wisdom of our Lutheran forefathers.

“The singing of such hymns would make the rich Lutheran Church into a beggar which is forced to beg from a miserable sect.”

—C.F.W. Walther

We have supplanted our own confession with the erroneous theology of others. At the same time, our doctrine and practice—especially the latter—have almost limitlessly suffered. It would be right for any faithful Lutheran to wonder how the adoption of non-Lutheran hymns has invariably infected our hymnic tradition—and fairer to assert that it indeed has caused our tradition to suffer.

I often wonder how much stronger the various churches of the LCMS’s commitment to the Lutheran Confessions would be if they readopted the hymns of our forefathers. I have observed that in the various churches that make use of such faithful Lutheran hymns, their doctrine and practice is far more improved than other “standard” LCMS churches.

One final note. You may wonder why I titled this article as I did. Its relevance to this article is simple: If we are churches of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession—indeed, if we dare say that we are the Evangelical Lutheran Church—we must reclaim the hymnic tradition that our Lutheran forefathers handed down to us. It is a shame that in many ways the hymns of our forefathers are far lesser known than the works of those who belong to different confessions of faith. Separated brethren the Methodists and Baptists may be—and brothers and sisters in Christ they most certainly are—yet to them alone belongs their hymnic tradition.

I leave you with a word from C.F.W. Walther on hymnody, which I have shared in previous articles. Nevertheless, I feel that it is an ever-pertinent reminder of the hymnic tradition we have lost, and a faithful call for us to return. While Walther only explicitly mentions Methodist hymns in his warning, it is doubtless that Walther would purport the same warning against any hymn from an opposing confession:

“Our church is so rich in hymns that you could justifiably state that if one were to introduce Methodist hymns in a Lutheran school this would be like carrying coals to Newcastle. The singing of such hymns would make the rich Lutheran Church into a beggar which is forced to beg from a miserable sect. Thirty or forty years ago a Lutheran preacher might well have been forgiven this. For at that time the Lutheran Church in our country was as poor as a beggar when it comes to song books for Lutheran children. A preacher scarcely knew where he might obtain such little hymn books. Now, however, since our church itself has everything it needs, it is unpardonable when a preacher of our church causes little ones to suffer the shame of eating a foreign bread.

and later…

“A preacher who introduces Methodist hymns, let alone Methodist hymnals, raises the suspicion that he is no true Lutheran at heart, and that he believes one religion is as good as the other, and that he is thus a unionistic-man, a mingler of religion and churches.”

—Letter from C.F.W. Walther, responding to a man who asked if it was appropriate to use Methodist hymns in Sunday school [my own emphasis added in bold].

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Finally, a hymn by Paul Gerhardt. It was omitted from Lutheran Service Book (LSB), yet it can be found in an “extension” of the LSB in the Lutheran Service Builder. If ever you are asked why we ought to care so deeply and passionately about the state of Lutheran hymnody, one might look to this hymnic gem as an example of the beautiful tradition we have been given. Our heritage is rich; our tradition is magnificent. Why must we forsake it for theological and hymnic inferiority. Indeed, we must not.

1. I will sing my Maker's praises
And in Him most joyful be,
For in all things I see traces
Of His tender love to me.
Nothing else than love could move Him
With such sweet and tender care
Evermore to raise and bear
All who try to serve and love Him.
All things else have but their day,
God's great love abides for aye.

2. Yea, so dear did He esteem me
That His Son He loved so well
He hath given to redeem me
From the quenchless flames of hell.
O Thou Spring of boundless blessing,
How could e'er my feeble mind
Of Thy depth the bottom find
Though my efforts were unceasing?
All things else have but their day,
God's great love abides for aye.

3. All that for my soul is needful
He with loving care provides,
Nor of that is He unheedful
Which my body needs besides.
When my strength cannot avail me,
When my powers can do no more,
Doth my God His strength outpour;
In my need He doth not fail me.
All things else have but their day,
God's great love abides for aye.

4. When I sleep, He still is near me,
O'er me rests His guardian eye;
And new gifts and blessings cheer me
When the morning streaks the sky.
Were it not for God's protection,
Had His countenance not been
Here my guide, I had not seen
E'er the end of my affliction.
All things else have but their day,
God's great love abides for aye.

5. As a father never turneth
Wholly from a wayward child,
For the prodigal still yearneth,
Longing to be reconciled,
So my many sins and errors
Find a tender, pardoning God,
Chastening frailty with His rod,
Not in vengeance, with His terrors.
All things else have but their day,
God's great love abides for aye.

6. Since, then, neither change nor coldness
In my Father's love can be,
Lo! I lift my hands with boldness,
As Thy child I come to Thee.
Grant me grace, O God, I pray Thee,
That I may with all my might,
All my lifetime, day and night,
Love and trust Thee and obey Thee
And, when this brief life is o'er,
Praise and love Thee evermore.

The Lutheran Hymnal #25
Text: Paul Gerhardt, 1607-76, tr.: composite.