The Church as Culture

[Ken]

Creative expressions in the anabaptist tradition tend to be old and overly pragmatic. Other than pottery, furniture, and quilts, what other staples of artistic expression has our tradition become known for?

Congregational and choral singing. And composers such as Wendell Glick and Lyle Stutzman are writing excellent music for both congregations and choirs.

Wendell Glick and Lyle Stutzman aside.

What percentage of hymns sung by a typical Anabaptist group were even written by Anabaptists or are newer than 100 years old?

[barnhart]

Great example PeterG. I might add Larry Nickel to the list of composers.

[PeterG]

:

Which is extremely frustrating given the extraordinary artistic heritage that Christianity possesses.

What is the missing belief or philosophy.

Good question. I suspect it has something to do with the effort required to access and build on our artistic heritage. People take the path of least resistance (and I don't necessarily blame them as individuals for it).

I've been thinking about this some more, and I find myself going in multiple directions.

The primacy of the protestant work ethic.

Yes...utility is not the primary value. The value of beauty and the goodness it brings, and glory to God it demonstrates, is highly valued.

To some, such is *wasteful* and other more productive things should be done with the time and money.

There's probably something to this, but I don't think it's a terribly significant factor. Anabaptists and American Protestants in general plow a lot of resources into creative endeavors (not to mention recreation and entertainment, broadly speaking). Think of the CCM industry, and all the fiction produced by Christian publishers. The issue is quality, not quantity.

Maybe some of the things Anabaptism has gathered into its nest is more to blame for that problem, if/where it exists. Like fundamentalism.

I think this is a more significant factor. The expression of truth is reduced to the utilitarian (I grant the point of intersection with JBG's suggestion) reinforcement of propositions concerning correct belief and behavior. For example, conservative Anabaptists have produced a very large quantity of didactic fiction, such as that found in CLP's Companions Sunday school papers and in Pathway publications. Precious little if any of it deserves to be read as literature in 100 years. In contrast, Gothic architecture of the Middle ages was conceived and executed as a materialization of divine order and a dramatization of God's invitation of humanity into eternal fellowship. It has enduring value.

It's also worth noting that with Anabaptists we're talking about a relatively small talent pool. To again use literature as an example, I can think of only about a dozen truly great writers from Russia, one of the world's largest nations; should we be surprised if a group numbering in the thousands rather than the millions is failing to produce reams of extraordinary literature?

[ohio jones]

Creative expressions in the anabaptist tradition tend to be old and overly pragmatic. Other than pottery, furniture, and quilts, what other staples of artistic expression has our tradition become known for?

Congregational and choral singing. And composers such as Wendell Glick and Lyle Stutzman are writing excellent music for both congregations and choirs.

We can be thankful that Zwingli, Grebel, and the Regulative Principle did not prevail on that subject.

[barnhart]

Wendell Glick and Lyle Stutzman aside.

What percentage of hymns sung by a typical Anabaptist group were even written by Anabaptists or are newer than 100 years old?

The hymnody does change over time, maybe not as fast as you are expecting. I grew up with different hymnals and songs than my parents, with significant overlap, and they likewise grew up with a different hymnody than their parents.

[PeterG]

Creative expressions in the anabaptist tradition tend to be old and overly pragmatic. Other than pottery, furniture, and quilts, what other staples of artistic expression has our tradition become known for?

Congregational and choral singing. And composers such as Wendell Glick and Lyle Stutzman are writing excellent music for both congregations and choirs.

Wendell Glick and Lyle Stutzman aside.

What percentage of hymns sung by a typical Anabaptist group were even written by Anabaptists or are newer than 100 years old?

I have no idea, but I suspect it's both larger than you might think and a poor metric by which to measure Anabaptist participation in these artforms. Widely-used songbooks such as Zion's Praises and Hymns of the Church have a number of frequently-sung works by Anabaptists of recent generations. The numbers probably aren't too different from what you'd find if the metric were applied to other denominations, especially once adjusted for Anabaptists' smaller numbers and the resultant smaller number of potential composers. It's not that unusual for Anabaptists to dabble in composition and share the products with their friends, youth groups, and congregations (much as an evangelical might bring something to his church's praise and worship band). Most of these never become widely known, but some break out and circulate more widely.

Furthermore, broad and deep engagement with the tradition of Christian music as a whole is both a sign and source of the health of the artform among Anabaptists. It's almost a cliche (and derived from the conventions of classically-influenced choral singing in general) that the average album from a choir like Oasis Chorale includes plainchant, Renaissance polyphony, post-Reformation German and English hymns, African-American spirituals, early 20th century gospel songs, a Latin American or African piece, and something by a contemporary Mennonite.

[Ken]

Congregational and choral singing. And composers such as Wendell Glick and Lyle Stutzman are writing excellent music for both congregations and choirs.

Wendell Glick and Lyle Stutzman aside.

What percentage of hymns sung by a typical Anabaptist group were even written by Anabaptists or are newer than 100 years old?

I have no idea, but I suspect it's both larger than you might think and a poor metric by which to measure Anabaptist participation in these artforms. Widely-used songbooks such as Zion's Praises and Hymns of the Church have a number of frequently-sung works by Anabaptists of recent generations. The numbers probably aren't too different from what you'd find if the metric were applied to other denominations, especially once adjusted for Anabaptists' smaller numbers and the resultant smaller number of potential composers. It's not that unusual for Anabaptists to dabble in composition and share the products with their friends, youth groups, and congregations (much as an evangelical might bring something to his church's praise and worship band). Most of these never become widely known, but some break out and circulate more widely.

Furthermore, broad and deep engagement with the tradition of Christian music as a whole is both a sign and source of the health of the artform among Anabaptists. It's almost a cliche (and derived from the conventions of classically-influenced choral singing in general) that the average album from a choir like Oasis Chorale includes plainchant, Renaissance polyphony, post-Reformation German and English hymns, African-American spirituals, early 20th century gospel songs, a Latin American or African piece, and something by a contemporary Mennonite.

In all the arts there is a tension between tradition and creativity. For example, the impressionists like Monet and Van Gogh were not welcomed by the "academy" during their time. And most every form of 20th Century music was resisted and objected to during its time.

I'm just pointing out that the Anabaptist music tradition falls very solidly on the traditionalist end of the spectrum. Especially if we are talking about any groups more conservative than MCUSA. I will agree that the more liberal wings as represented by say Goshen College and EMU do a good job of exploring world music and modern music. And they were doing that when I was attending in the 1980s. But I don't sense they are very representative of the larger Anabaptist movement as it exists today.

[JohnL]

What percentage of hymns sung by a typical Anabaptist group were even written by Anabaptists or are newer than 100 years old?

I have no idea, but I suspect it's both larger than you might think and a poor metric by which to measure Anabaptist participation in these artforms. Widely-used songbooks such as Zion's Praises and Hymns of the Church have a number of frequently-sung works by Anabaptists of recent generations. The numbers probably aren't too different from what you'd find if the metric were applied to other denominations, especially once adjusted for Anabaptists' smaller numbers and the resultant smaller number of potential composers. It's not that unusual for Anabaptists to dabble in composition and share the products with their friends, youth groups, and congregations (much as an evangelical might bring something to his church's praise and worship band). Most of these never become widely known, but some break out and circulate more widely.

Furthermore, broad and deep engagement with the tradition of Christian music as a whole is both a sign and source of the health of the artform among Anabaptists. It's almost a cliche (and derived from the conventions of classically-influenced choral singing in general) that the average album from a choir like Oasis Chorale includes plainchant, Renaissance polyphony, post-Reformation German and English hymns, African-American spirituals, early 20th century gospel songs, a Latin American or African piece, and something by a contemporary Mennonite.

It's my understanding that there's individuals with a gift for writing that can be found in nearly every group. Some of the poets' works were set to music as hymns. Aren't there some hymn collections that are from Anabaptist writers?

[Soloist]

One of the churches, my wife and I visited actually had original songs composed by people in the church. It does exist, but it’s not particularly common.

For that matter, for all of the famed Mennonite ability to sing… ask them to sing a song they’ve never sung before and they stumble over it yet still wonder why seekers struggle to sing 90% of the songs themselves.

I would say, though that some of the historical songs have far more value than the stuff of modern days for both theology and meaning. Although I’m not opposed to changing the tunes to be a little bit more reasonable.

I’ve also noticed that school performances seems to be the primary way that new songs slip in.

[Praxis+Theodicy]

I’ve also noticed that school performances seems to be the primary way that new songs slip in.

I don't know if you meant grade school or Bible school, but I was pleasantly surprised when the youth in our church came back from a youth Bible school in PA with some new songs. One of which I knew from my Evangelical Baptist days, by the Gettys. I think the Gettys are fantastic contemporary hymn writers, and more churches ought to seek out the stuff they've produced and published by others.