This Is Our Song: Women's Hymn-Writing

by Janet Wootton (Editor)

Overview

Women have made an amazing, creative, and prolific contribution to hymnody through the centuries of Christian worship. Excluded from liturgical commissions and denied other opportunities for involvement in the worship of the churches, women were able to express and influence spirituality in the writing of hymns. This influence spreads across the whole range of hymn-writing, including writing for children, which was at one time seen as women's natural place, but also the introduction of new voices through translations; engagement in social campaigns such as temperance and the abolition of slavery; mission and evangelism; and the general development of worshipping life. However, with the exception of the nineteenth century, the voices of women have been largely silenced or marginalized. The "Hymn Explosion" of the 1960s onward almost completely ignored women's writing, and there has only recently been something of a recovery. There is much more to Our Song than people think! This book opens up women's writing from the beginnings of Christianity, through the Middle Ages, the development of printing and the rise of popular hymnody to the present day. Living hymn-writers add their voices in a series of biographical "stories," which complete the overarching story of Our Song.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781725231375
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	01/07/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	392
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Janet Wootton is a hymn-writer and theologian, living and working in the UK. She is Director of Studies for the Congregational Federation.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Part One 1

1 Virgins, Visionaries and Heretics 3

2 Reforms in Theology and Technology 29

3 The Nineteenth Century: Evangelical and Evangelistic 58

4 The Nineteenth Century: Political and Social Revolution 112

5 Explosions and Outpourings 159

Part Two 233

6 Ten Portraits of Contemporary Women Hymn-Writers 235

Marian Collihole 235

Elizabeth Cosnett 244

Marjorie Dobson 254

Ruth Duck 263

Kathy Galloway 276

Sue Gilmurray 287

Shirley Erena Murray 295

Interview with Betty Carr Pulkingham 308

Cecily Taylor 313

June Boyce-Tillman 321

Bibliography 337

Acknowledgements and Sources 356

Index of Names and Subjects 359

Index of First Lines of Hymns 372

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"In this passionate and well-researched book, Janet Wootton shows how women's voices in the church's song have historically been suppressed, or filtered by male sponsorship, and how the twentieth-century hymn-writing renaissance sprang from male-only or almost-only institutions, so that few women writers got published. Fascinating portraits of today's English-language women hymnists add a rich vein of story to the analysis. This book is for all who love worship and language, including (dare I say it?) men."
Brian Wren, Emeritus Professor of Worship, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA

"Janet Wootton has written a wonderfully alive and enlightening book in which she brings to light many women who have been obscured from history due to gender blindness. She presents us with passionate women who, despite the constraints of their day, write fire-fueled by their love of God and love of humankind. Wootton herself is one of these women, and her passion draws the reader into an important and until now underrepresented part of the history of women and hymnody. This is our song, and Janet's scholarship enables us to sing it with our forebears and contemporaries."
Lisa Isherwood, Director of Theological Partnerships, University of Winchester.

Editorial Reviews

"In this passionate and well-researched book, Janet Wootton shows how women's voices in the church's song have historically been suppressed, or filtered by male sponsorship, and how the twentieth-century hymn-writing renaissance sprang from male-only or almost-only institutions, so that few women writers got published. Fascinating portraits of today's English-language women hymnists add a rich vein of story to the analysis. This book is for all who love worship and language, including (dare I say it?) men."
Brian Wren, Emeritus Professor of Worship, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA

"Janet Wootton has written a wonderfully alive and enlightening book in which she brings to light many women who have been obscured from history due to gender blindness. She presents us with passionate women who, despite the constraints of their day, write fire-fueled by their love of God and love of humankind. Wootton herself is one of these women, and her passion draws the reader into an important and until now underrepresented part of the history of women and hymnody. This is our song, and Janet's scholarship enables us to sing it with our forebears and contemporaries."
Lisa Isherwood, Director of Theological Partnerships, University of Winchester.

From the Publisher