WHO DO YOU SING THAT I AM? THE LIFE OF JESUS IN TWENTIETH CENTURY MENNONITE HYMNALS: A CASE STUDY IN THE USE OF HYMNODY FOR THEOLOGICAL RESEARCH A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF ASSOCIATED MENNONITE BIBLICAL SEMINARY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF THE ARTS: CHRISTIAN FORMATION BY ADAM MERRILL LONGORIA TICE GOSHEN, INDIANA MAY, 2007 2 CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION . .5 Method . .6 Similar research . .10 Overview . 12 CHAPTER 2: EXPLORING THE HYMNALS . .13 Mennonite Church Roots . .13 The Church and Sunday School Hymnal With Supplement . .13 Church Hymnal . .25 General Conference Roots . .35 Mennonite Hymn Book . .35 The Mennonite Hymnary . .49 Convergence . 60 Mennonite Hymnal . 60 Hymnal: A Worship Book . .73 Conclusions . .90 CHAPTER 3: COMPARING THE HYMNALS TO CONFESSIONS OF FAITH . 92 Mennonite Church . .93 “Christian Fundamentals . .93 General Conference . .95 “Ris Confession” . .95 “Articles of Faith” . .97 “The Statement of Faith” . 97 Convergence . .99 “Mennonite Confession of Faith” . .99 Synthesis . 101 Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective . 101 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSIONS . .104 APPENDIX: LISTS AND TABLES . 107 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 155 3 4 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In the introduction to Hymnal: A Worship Book, Rebecca Slough writes that as Mennonites, “[o]ur singing reveals much about who we have been and who we are…” 1 Similarly, Ken Nafziger and Marlene Kropf claim that the songs of the church “bring to life the narratives of scripture.” 2 They go on to say that “[t]he church’s wisdom and the poetic insights of individual poets, along with scripture’s great treasury of images of God, provide abundant resources for nurturing faith’s imagination.” 3 They even suggest that “[h]ymn writers will more effectively mold the sentiments of a church than those who preach or make creeds or confessions.” 4 If this is the case, then Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, Catherine Winkworth and Brian Wren may in fact be the most important writers of Mennonite theology. Hymn-singing is an essential element in Mennonite theological formation. In the process of interviewing a wide range of Mennonite worshippers, Kropf and Nafziger found that for many, there is little in corporate worship that needs to be done that cannot be done by singing together. Singing can gather the congregation; it can become the vehicle of praise, confession, and intercession; it can speak the word of God; it can transform and empower a people. It not only carries the actions of worship forward, it is the primary action of worship. 5 Although the phenomenon of hymn-singing has been studied in recent years, little attention has been given to the influence of hymnal redaction upon Mennonite theology. If the quotations above are correct, then denominational hymnals should be considered descriptive 1 Rebecca Slough, ed., Hymnal: A Worship Book: Prepared by Churches in the Believers Church Tradition (Elgin, IL:Brethren Press 1992) iii. 2 Marlene Kropf and Kenneth Nafziger, Singing, A Mennonite Voice (Scottdale, PA: Herald Press: 2001) 113. 3 Ibid., 115. 4 Ibid., 111. 5 Ibid., 27. 5 sourcebooks for many questions of theology and practice. They provide records of what theology reaches the hearts, minds and lips of worshippers. Because they are revised, updated, and edited every few decades, studying a range of hymnals provides a panorama of theological change over several generations. Mennonites have produced very few of the individual songs that appear in Mennonite hymnals, which means that hymnal editors must borrow resources from a wide ecumenical body of hymnody. What I refer to as “Mennonite Hymnody,” therefore, is really the body of hymns that Mennonites have borrowed from other traditions. 6 Method I first tested this idea of hymnals as historical sourcebooks of theology in January 2004 during a course taught by Eleanor Kreider on Communion at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary. I examined twentieth-century English-language Mennonite hymnals for what they revealed about the shifting practices of the Lord’s Supper. I found that, in fact, the hymnals served as very reliable guides to transitions in thought and practice. Subsequently, that study was published. 7 Realizing the value of this method of research, I now hope to confirm its usefulness in a more expansive study. Here, I have examined six hymnals, each one an official denominational publication, to determine what each says about the earthly life of Jesus Christ. Eleanor Kreider points to Jesus Christ as the proper center of worship: The primary theme of New Testament worship, the thread that runs through all, is devotion to Jesus Christ, who was acknowledged as Messiah and Lord. Worship texts and rites always point to this one person. Who was Jesus? How could Christians express their relationship to him? If the central meaning of New Testament worship texts, its 6 A list in the Appendix indicates the ecumenical popularity of many hymns commonly used by Mennonites. 7 Adam M. L. Tice, “Singing Shapes Communion: The Progression of Eucharistic Theology in 20 th Century Mennonite Hymnals,” The Conrad Grebel Review 24, no. 3, Fall 2006, 45-64. 6 binding quality, is Jesus, then to be true to the New Testament in our worship, we too must look to Jesus as the measure of our worship. 8 This thesis will demonstrate that every hymnal provides an implicit narrative of Jesus’ life. Editors and committees have made decisions about exclusion and inclusion of hymns that shape our understandings of Jesus. I will examine the redaction of North American Mennonite hymnals as it has influenced Mennonite narratives of Jesus. Rather than study individual hymns in great depth, I will examine the overall impression of Jesus that the average, thoughtful Mennonite worshipper would encounter over the span of a hymnal’s use. The hymnals under consideration are Church and Sunday School Hymnal with Supplement, 1902, supplement 1911 (hereafter MC1), 9 Church Hymnal , 1927 (hereafter MC2), 10 Mennonite Hymn Book , 1927 (hereafter GC1 ), 11 The Mennonite Hymnary , 1940 (hereafter GC2), 12 Mennonite Hymnal , 1969 (hereafter MH), 13 and Hymnal: A Worship Book , 1992 (hereafter HWB). The (Old) Mennonite Church (MC) produced the first two listed. The third and fourth were produced by the General Conference Mennonite Church (GC). The fifth and sixth were produced jointly. There would be good reason to include German language hymnals as well. Because I am examining change over time, it makes the most sense to concentrate on hymnals that share the most common material, which means concentrating on one language. GC Mennonites in particular continued to use and publish German hymnals into the 1960s. These 8 Eleanor Kreider, “Worship: True to Jesus,” in Bernie Neufeld, ed., Music in Worship: A Mennonite Perspective , (Scottdale, PA: Herald Press 1998) 18-19. 9 J. D. Brunk, ed., Church and Sunday School Hymnal, A Collection of Hymns and Sacred Songs, Appropriate for Church Services, Sunday Schools, and General Devotional Exercises (Scottdale, PA: Mennonite Publishing House, 1902), bound with Church and Sunday School Hymnal Supplement, A Collection of Hymns and Sacred Songs, Arranged as a Supplement to Church and Sunday School Hymnal (1911). 10 J. D. Brunk and S. F. Coffman, eds., Church Hymnal, Mennonite, A Collection of Hymns and Sacred Songs Suitable for Use in Public Worship, Worship in the Home, and all General Occasions (Scottdale, PA: Mennonite Publishing House 1927). 11 Mennonite Hymn Book, Published by the General Conference of the Mennonite Church of North America (Berne, IN: Mennonite Book Concern 1927). 12 Walter H. Hohmann and Lester Hostetler, eds., The Mennonite Hymnary, Published by the Board of Publication of the General Conference of the Mennonite Church of North America (Berne, IN: Mennonite Book Concern 1940). 13 The Mennonite Hymnal (Newton, KS: Faith and Life Press 1969). 7 were most influential in Canada. Comparison of the contents of those hymnals with the English- language ones would be fruitful, but is beyond the scope of this study. I selected hymns from the six hymnals dealing with Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, the life and teachings of Jesus, Palm Sunday, Passion, Easter, and Ascension. 14 This follows the organization of most of the hymnals, which generally group the hymns according to the church calendar. For the purposes of this study, my definition of “hymn” is quite broad—I include any text that is intended to be sung and included in these hymnals as a hymn. Additional hymns from supplemental sections that appear to be grouped according to these themes have also been included—an example being Christmas hymns from the MH Gospel Songs section. The tables of contents were the primary guides for locating these hymns. MC1 has no table of contents, so I surveyed the index and the contents of entire collection. This process created a manageable sample of hymns for the purposes of this study. Other criteria might have been used to either limit or expand the list, and there is certainly the risk that some hymns may have been missed. For example, using these discrete sections of the hymnals means that many Lord’s Supper and Baptism hymns did not make the list. However, in order to create an overall impression of the life of Jesus as reported in each hymnal, this sampling should be more than adequate. My thesis is that major expansions in the Jesus narrative occur within these hymnals. In the earlier hymnals, the life of Jesus is heavily focused upon the Passion. Later hymnals, while still retaining a large number of Passion hymns, offer much more (both in volume and variety) on his birth, life and teaching, and resurrection. I will show that GC narratives were much more influential than MC in the formation of joint hymnals. As a source of comparison, I will examine confessions of faith from the same periods as these hymnals.