Novelists in the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology

05 March 2019

Some of the novelists who feature as hymn writers in the Dictionary:

Believe not those who say    Anne Brontë (1820-1849)

The hymn reflects Anne Brontë’s response to a difficult and sometimes turbulent life, and its message of ultimate trust is valuable and relevant...

O God of earth and altar     Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936)

The hymn is densely written, using oblique and figurative language: Chesterton enumerates the political and social ills of society, including materialism (‘walls of gold’), class distinction (‘swords of scorn’), and political corruption... 

From thee all skill and science flow    Charles Kingsley (1819-1875)

The usual shortening of the hymn to four verses allows it to be used as a general hymn of hope for the betterment of humanity through skill and science, and through the other virtues such as pity, care, and love...

That mystic word of Thine, O sovereign Lord     Harriet Beecher Stowe  (1811-1896)

As with Stowe’s other hymns, the diction and imagery have not appealed to modern hymnal compilers, either in Britain or in the USA and Canada. The tenderness and beauty of the hymn has not commended itself to those brought up on more strident theologies...

Jesus loves me! this I know   Anna Bartlett Warner (1827-1915)

Anna Warner’s sister, Susan Bogert Warner, was a very successful novelist. This famous hymn occurs in one of her books, Say and Seal (1859), to which Anna (also a novelist, though a less successful one) contributed...

Jochen Klepper  (1903-1942)

During his lifetime Klepper was best known as a novelist, but since his death his hymns have attracted more attention. The texts are simple, straightforward German, if perhaps a bit old-fashioned on occasion. The poetry is tightly constructed, with vivid imagery and theology that is both profound and wholly orthodox... 

Walter Scott (1771-1832)

Scott was not a hymn writer, but from his works two texts have been used as hymns. ‘When Israel, of the Lord beloved’ is the concluding hymn of Rebecca’s devotions in prison in Ivanhoe (1820)...