Amazing grace (My chains are gone)

Amazing grace (My chains are gone). John Newton* (1725–1807) and Chris Tomlin* (1972– ). In a Facebook Live video published in 2017, Chris Tomlin recounts a chance encounter with a friend who told him about some acquaintances who were making a movie about William Wilberforce (1759–1833) called Amazing Grace (2007). His friend mentioned that the producers of the film were wondering if Tomlin would be willing to ‘do something’ with the hymn of the same name. (Note: relating the hymn directly with John Newton’s earlier profession as a trafficker of enslaved people has not been established historically.) After briefly recounting Wilberforce’s work toward abolishing the slave trade in Britain,...