‘Tukutendereza Yesu’
I'm never convinced when Protestants claim to be people of the Bible alone. They are people of the Bible and the hymnbook, and the two volumes complement each other splendidly. As you sing, so you believe and so you pray—and so you learn much of your theology.
As Christian churches grow around the world, it is not surprising to find an astonishing efflorescence of hymn composition. We must avoid the loose term hymn writing, as so many of the creators are primarily oral artists, and only gradually do their works find their way into written form. But however they are made, the sheer abundance and quality of those hymns is overwhelming, whether in Yoruba or Swahili, Tamil or Zulu. Arguably, we live today in the golden age of Christian hymn-making.
Trying to understand emerging Christian cultures without some knowledge of those compositions is like trying to tell the Anglo-American religious story without referring to "Amazing Grace" or "The Old Rugged Cross." And as in the English-speaking world, hymns do not stand solely on the artistic merit of their words and music. To hear great hymns is to be drawn into a familiar story, which in its way forms part of an epic mythology. "Amazing Grace" is powerful in its own right, but it becomes vastly more so when it evokes for the hearer the larger story of former slaveowner John Newton, with its legend of loss and redemption, of national sin and heroic activism. Great stories produce hymns, which in turn shape lives and drive movements.
