The Bible and Music

Is a hymn a song? Are hymns old? Are they religious? Is there a definite way to categorize hymns? Google defines a hymn as a “religious song or poem, typically of praise to God or a god.” If you think about it, this definition is actually very broad… anything from a traditional church song to the most recent Christmas song could technically be considered hymns under this definition. I personally would not categorize more recent Christmas music as hymns. While this line is hard to draw, it is also difficult to draw the line between what is contemporary music and what is not… I guess all of this is somewhat of an opinion which can be argued. It will be interesting to hear the examples of contemporary Christian music with biblical allusions that my classmates come up with.

One example mentioned was Hillsong United: “Oceans,” “Here Now,” etc. Hymns were also discussed. Examples of known hymns included “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” “Be Thou My Vision,” and “Before The Throne.”

In regards to Christmas carols, are these hymns? If it is in a hymnal, does that make the song for sure a hymn? There is such a wide variety of Christmas songs, and different churches surely include a different variety of Christmas songs/carols in their hymnals. Really, categories in any case are never perfect. It is impossible to perfectly categorize contemporary vs not contemporary or hymn vs not hymn or Christian vs not Christian. This idea of categorizing music also applies to religion. Most religions try to find the right combination of traditions from the past while still incorporating what’s new. This conversation today is really interesting in terms of the intersection of music and the Bible. Also, as discussed last class, this conversation applies to a lot more in life besides just music and the Bible. The concepts we are talking about such as categorization applies in so many different scenarios.