Time&Eternity

No Concept of Time without Narrated Time 13
texts, whereas in the hymns, the path to the voice of the people should be at
least somewhat shorter than in the inflexible liturgical portions.
Furthermore, the use of liturgical texts is concentrated in the church
service, while hymns should have a broader application, “not only in the
shaping of formal worship, but also as an enrichment of spiritual experience,
both in private reading and memory and in meditation.” 12 The editors
of The Australian Hymn Book were determined to maintain the “intimacy
and immediacy that would carry it [a hymn] out of the time of formal
worship as a source of daily guidance and inspiration.” 13 Similarly, the
Evangelische Gesangbuch (Protestant Hymnal) also aims to fulfill the “tasks of
a Christian family and parish book” [Aufgaben eines christlichen Hausund
Gemeindebuches]. 14 Against the backdrop of the way in which the
Swedish people practice piety, which is based more on the hymnal than directly
on the Bible, Den Svenska Psalmboken (The Swedish Hymnbook) is indeed
intended for private devotions as well as for public worship, as stated
in its foreword.
Finally, the entire range of the centuries is easily accessible in the hymnals.
Here, the new and the old—”the new to stimulate and extend us, the
old to comfort and confirm” 15 —stand side by side. Methodologically, a
study of hymns enables access “from below.” Here, the starting point is not
the abstract and historical development of dogmatic concepts, but rather
the search for phenomenological access. This is not to say that dogmatics
would not have been important in the creation of hymns. It is merely maintained
here that this was not the primus motor. Finally, it may be noted that
this study is less concerned with tracking down the Zeitgeist of different
epochs than with listening to concentrated life experience.
Material
In the following discussion, several hymnals will be examined with respect
to their treatment of time and the experience of time. To be relevant,
the materials should be current hymnals that mirror a certain ecumenical
breadth. They should also have general validity in numerous congregations
and represent at least three different languages. Viewed from this standpoint,
two German, two Swedish, and two English hymnals have been chosen.
The German hymnals include the 1995 provisional edition of the Evangelische
Gesangbuch, 16 which was published for the Protestant Church in the
Rhineland, the Protestant Church of Westphalia, and the Lippian Church,
as well as the Catholic prayer and hymn book, Gotteslob (Praise of God) 17