C.S. Lewis & the 'Clean Sea Breeze' of the Musical Centuries
Musical Applications of Lewis's Words on Reading Outside Our Time
Introduction
Many have read or heard of C. S. Lewis’s quotes from his essay, “On the Reading of Old Books,” which first appeared in an introduction to a 1944 reprint of Athanasius’s On the Incarnation before later being compiled into a book of essays.1 Lewis’s warning in this essay for readers has as much timely application for the twenty-first century evangelical church in how she approaches her music and hymnody practice. This article seeks to apply Lewis’s thinking to a church that needs clarity on how to think about music and hymnody in much the same way that Lewis thought his twentieth-century readers needed clarity on how to think about reading old books.
The evangelical Christian church in America today is not of the same mind in principles and methods of music practice in the lives of Christians. We live in a paradoxical musical environment where there is music everywhere. Still, the individuals listening to it have less need and incentive to understand and make music for themselves when technology provides virtually unrestricted access to the best of music at one’s fingertips. In addition, we are products of the Enlightenment and post-modernity, and we fail to understand how much that has shaped our understanding of music. When we seek to understand the qualities and goals of good worship music in our churches and Christian communities, we are urged to stay relevant and current in both our style and presentation to show an authentic and sincere desire to meet people where they are and bring the nations to Christ with every tool at our disposal. But when, in this spirit, we defer to newer styles and newer forms without balancing out what has come before, we miss out on some great opportunities to be shaped by the forms, content, and practices that our older brothers in the faith had that we have not yet benefited from.
Some readers may think that I’m one of those curmudgeonly church musicians who feels left out of the modern debate and is trying to get back to church music of that old, nostalgic yesteryear. You may be already expecting what and how I’m going to argue for this. Instead, keep reading because my goal is to make a winsome case for how we should approach music and singing, given where we are today as twenty-first century evangelical Christians.
Musical Applications of Lewis’s Words
Returning to Lewis’s essay “On the Reading of Old Books,” Lewis does not want his essay's reader to only read old books. He writes, “Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old. And I would give him this advice precisely because he is an amateur and therefore much less protected than the expert against the dangers of an exclusive contemporary diet. A new book is still on its trial and the amateur is not in a position to judge it. It has to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages, and all its hidden implications (often unsuspected by the author himself) have to be brought to light.”2 Substitute the word books for hymns and read for sing, and the argument being made here should come into focus.
For a long list of reasons, most Christians today are amateurs in music. Therefore, we would do well to apply Lewis’s advice to the singing of old psalms, hymns, and songs. Continuing the transposition of words from Lewis, he says, “It is a good rule, after singing a new hymn, never to allow yourself another new one till you have sung an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least sing one old one to every three new ones.”3 Lewis continues, “Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books. All contemporary writers share to some extent the contemporary outlook—even those, like myself, who seem most opposed to it. Nothing strikes me more when I read the controversies of past ages than the fact that both sides were usually assuming without question a good deal which we should now absolutely deny. They thought that they were as completely opposed as two sides could be, but in fact they were all the time secretly united—united with each other and against earlier and later ages—by a great mass of common assumptions.” 4
The “characteristic mistakes of our own period” are often unknown to us immediately. As people trying to be faithful downstream from a grand tradition of Christian faith and practice, we should want to show thankfulness and deference for what has come before. Lewis’s remedy is to “keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds,” not because the past was wiser and cleverer than we are today.5 Instead, Lewis points out that while they made as many mistakes as we, they were not the same mistakes. He then explains, “They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us. Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction. To be sure, the books of the future would be just as good a corrective as the books of the past, but unfortunately we cannot get at them.”6 This is the genius of this essay in that it practically makes a case for not ignoring the old for the new.
That is easier said than done. It is hard to give thanks for things we do not understand, be it a person, book, or hymn. If it is foreign, it isn't easy to appreciate fully. So, in the remaining portion of this piece, I want to highlight briefly two connected hymns from “outside our time” that can help us keep the “sea breezes of the centuries blowing” in keeping with Lewis’s helpful admonition.
Two Hymns, One Tune
“The Law of God is good and wise, and sets his will before our eyes, shows us the way of righteousness, And dooms to death when we transgress.” This opening stanza was penned not by a minister but by a university president in 1863. Matthias Loy was president of Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, when he authored the stanzas of his most well-known hymn composition. President Loy either translated or wrote several dozen hymn texts in his lifetime.
As for the music, the hymn text was set to a much older hymn tune, and they published it in 1880 in the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnal. The text is in long meter, and the tune that most often accompanies it, Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort, written by Martin Luther in 1541. Here, Luther did what he so often did: taking preexisting musical material and incorporating it with a text that he either translated or expounded into a new hymn form. Erhalt uns, Herrdates to a sixth-century chant setting of Veni Redemptor Gentium. This Advent/Christmas chant is attributed to Ambrose of Milan. Luther translated the Veni Redemptor Gentium into Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland (Savior of the Nations, Come). Still, here he keeps the tune and gives it a different text of Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort, or “Lord, keep us steadfast in Thy word,” as we today sing it in English.
This is the famous hymn where Luther references staying the Pope and Turk. Where today we would sing, “Lord, keep us steadfast in Thy word; curb those who fain by craft and sword Would wrest the kingdom from Thy Son And set at naught all He hath done,” past iterations have read, “Lord, keep us steadfast in Thy Word, And stay the Pope’s and Turks’ cruel sword, For Jesus Christ, Thine only Son, They fain would cast from off His throne.” Luther penned three stanzas; three years later, Justus Jonas added stanzas four and five.7 Both these hymn texts would be of great encouragement to sing in our churches and homes, given where the Lord has placed us in history.
Conclusion
Lewis’s exhortation to read old books, or in this case, sing old hymns, is a much-needed correction for our time that is easily distracted by who, what, and how to sing. Much could be said about those particulars in later posts. But for now, we should seek to thankfully uphold Lewis’s principle that we read and even sing things outside of our time. It is not always easy, but the reward for our children and us will be long-lasting.
This article was written for the Fight Laugh Feast Magazine, Issue 3.2, and was published here with the editor’s permission. You can subscribe to this quarterly print magazine at flfnetwork.com.
For the full essay, see C.S. Lewis, “On the Reading of Old Books,” in God in the Dock (HarperCollins, 2014).
Lewis, “On the Reading of Old Books,” 201.
I have transposed the words “sing” and “hymn” in place of “read” and “books” from Lewis, God in the Dock, 201–2.
Lewis, “On the Reading of Old Books,” 202.
Lewis, “On the Reading of Old Books,” 202.
Lewis, “On the Reading of Old Books,” 202.
Jonas was a hymnwriter, theologian, and contemporary of Martin Luther.