Here's an interesting interview with Mark Noll, who's one of the premier Christian historians writing today. The interview gives interesting perspectives on the rise of evangelicalism, how it combined Anglicanism, Calvinistic Puritanism, and European Pietism. There's some helpful notes in the interview about the rise of hymnody (as opposed to traditional psalmody), and what set the scene for great revivals.
Noll also makes the charge that evangelicalism is inherently a parasitic movement, since it is always aimed at reforming dead religion. This basis as a reforming institution has led, according to Noll, to several failiures in modern evangelicalism, including a failure to address the culture effectively. What do you think? Is evangelicalism parasitic? Are we too focused on reforming the church while missing the outwardness of our call?
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Hey...
what do you think of my summer reading list?
i was talking to my history prof about a month and a half ago and he was telling me of a history professor at Yale who mentioned why the church began to use hymns in his book. The author is an atheist and nothing to gain by this comment. But what he said followed the gist of: hymns were used to reach the Pagan culture... the same way as CCM is used today. Now whether or not we want to debate this point is futile i think, but it is interesting in the matter of how hymns were used in the 5,6 centuries
see you at Synod??
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