Criteria for Hymn Selection: Theology

By Rev. Joel Brondos

“Theology must sing.”

Martin Franzmann

The first Lutheran cantor, Johann Walter, maintained in the 16th century that music is “wrapped up and locked up in theology, so that he who desires, pursues, and studies theology at the same time lays hold of the art of music, even though he may fail to see, feel, or understand this.”

The Lutheran Confessions even use the text of a well-known hymn to emphasize a doctrinal point (Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Article I:23, “They teach that what is sung in our churches, ‘Through Adam’s fall is all corrupt . . .”).

Centuries later, the first president of The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod, C.F.W. Walther, wrote concerning the hymn selection process for the 1847 Kirchengesangbuch:

“In the selection of the adopted hymns the chief consideration was that they be pure in doctrine; that they have found almost universal acceptance within the orthodox German Lutheran Church and have thus received the almost unanimous testimony that they had come forth from the true spirit (of Lutheranism); that they express not so much the changing circumstances of individual persons but rather contain the language of the whole church.” Hymns selected for this new hymnal follow in this tradition.

In our own day, Robin Leaver has expressed it this way: “For the people of our churches, theology is largely formed by the hymns they sing,” (“Renewal in Hymnody,” Lutheran Quarterly, no. 6 [Winter 1992], 367).

The hymnody of The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod is part and parcel with its theology. That which we believe, teach, and confess finds concrete expression through the hymns which we sing.