Let Justice Sing (American Essays in Liturgy)

LET JUSTICE SING begins with a survey that shows how justice is an urgent concern of recent hymn writers. To discover if twentieth-century Christians are the first to sing about justice, past hymnic repertoires from the psalms to African-American hymns are analyzed along with a couple related excursions. The broader context for hymnody is then addressed, especially in relation to worship, art, sentimentality, and culture. A final chapter suggests that Christians have always sung about justice, that the message transcends the messengers, that the most potent singing about justice keeps the whole Christian song intact, and that removing justice from the whole loses it. The book falls into three parts: content, context, and the importance of justice within the warp and woof of hymnody.