Ecumenical hymns


I was intrigued to learn that one of the hymns Catholics sing is "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," By Martin Luther. They have no use for him as a theologian, too radical, but they recognize that he did a great job as a songwriter on that hymn. The politics are here overshadowed by the acknowledgement of what things are profoundly true. Maybe a direction we should be looking, for progress in ecumenism, is to the kinds of songs we can all sing together. After affirming the truth we have in common by singing about it together, maybe everyone will be in a better mood to discuss the nonsense that keeps us apart.

Please feel free to click the comments and name hymns that are, for their evident truth, welcome across the theological spectrum; I think that such songs would make a long list. We're coming up on twenty centuries of Christian singing. Some very good statements of truly universal truths have emerged in our music, things any believer can hear and say yes, this is the true faith speaking.


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