Publisher's Synopsis
"The Wesleyan tradition was born in song and early Methodist people found their true identity as the children of God through singing. From the beginning, the hymns of Charles Wesley, in particular, shaped their self-understanding and faith practice. This lyrical heritage was not rooted in the simple joy of song; rather, the leaders of the nascent revival recognized the potency of congregational singing as a legitimate medium of theology. The Wesleys understood, as an ancient writer once observed, that to sing is to pray twice; and as an African proverb maintains: "If you can talk you can sing." The singing of Christians is both prayer to God and speech about God. Hymns function both as a communal confession of faith and a common catechism for the faith. This book explores the role of sacred song in the development of the Methodist doctrinal heritage from the hymnody of the Wesleys to the sung theology of contemporary global Methodists.
