If you’re trying to get anything done today and you share my loves of music and church history, please, please do not click on this link. In addition to the poem that became the national anthem in ...

Many people think they know the story of the hymn,"Amazing Grace." The commonly accepted narrative presents its composer, John Newton, a young English captain of a late 18th-century slave ship, as a ...

Today I’m happy to welcome to The Anxious Bench Emily G. Wenneborg, a PhD student in philosophy of education at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. While this post is on hymnody, Emily’s ...

In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, millions of Americans in their churches and community celebrations will sing the hymn that has become the de facto anthem of the holiday. “We gather together to ...

St. Francis of Assisi was a 13th-century Italian friar and preacher. Although Francis was not primarily a singer, his writings, especially this hymn, have influenced Christian worship deeply. He grew ...

George Orwell said, “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” Given that, remembering the songs and examining the meanings within ...

Though the Battle Hymn of the Republic is more than 150 years old, it is still embraced by Americans of all political persuasions. According to Ben Soskis, co-author of a new book about the song, that ...

Composer Nolan Williams Jr. has long combined faith, culture and the arts in his productions on stage and screen, often centering on African American life. Now, he has created the "Just Like Selma" ...

The hymn “He Hideth My Soul” speaks to the universal experience and need of every believer. We can still learn from this song today. I consider myself blessed to be raised in church during a time when ...

Beginning with an overview of the Vedic corpus, Habib speaks of the migration of the Aryan communities from the localities to the west of the Indus where the horse and the chariot played a central ...