Global hymnody

Global hymnody ‘Global’ is often used interchangeably with world, ethnic, international, or multicultural music. ‘Third-World music’ may be used occasionally, but is inaccurate and carries vestiges of colonialism. ‘Global hymnody’, however, also presents some difficulties. The first relates to perspective: What hymnody is global and what hymnody is not? Though Christian song has been transmitted across language groups and cultures since the apostolic era, the first wave of global song in recent centuries was from Europe and North America during the missionary movement of the 19th and 20th centuries. Mission hymnody during this era became the global musical currency. Late in the 20th...