Time&Eternity

No Concept of Time without Narrated Time 15
for services in the Church of Sweden. Texts and melodies are intended as
ways of expressing Christian belief “in our times,” for singing “in time, on
the path to eternity.” 24 This raises the hope that not only is something new
in time being said, but also something new about time. A large majority of
the texts in the Ps90 were written after 1970. 25
The AHB emerged from work performed by a committee constituted by
Anglicans, Congregationalists, Methodists, and Presbyterians in 1968. Collaboration
begun in 1974 with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney
resulted in the publication of the hymnal in two formats, The Australian
Hymn Book and The Australian Hymn Book with Catholic Supplement, which
has been examined in this study. The committee assigned itself the task of
preserving the best and most characteristic contributions of various denominations
to the entire life of the Church throughout the centuries. The results
are 624 hymns and songs that reflect a considerable breadth of Englishlanguage
hymn material. The main emphases are on Charles Wesley (1707–
1788) and Isaac Watts (1674–1748), who, with fifty-eight and thirty-five
hymns respectively, were the most frequently represented hymn writers.
The editorial board for the SA consisted of representatives of the Anglican
Church of Australia, the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, the Presbyterian
Church of Australia, and the Uniting Church in Australia. 26 The SA
contains biblical psalms, chorales primarily from the forty years preceding
the edition, and hymns of diverse character, for example, songs from Taizé.
The editors aimed to achieve international breadth. Among the 105 hymns,
they have therefore included contributions from the Philippines, from China,
from the area of the former Czechoslovakia, and from France, Great
Britain, America, Africa, and New Zealand. Aboriginal hymns are also included
in the Australian material.
Methods
How then is narrated time manifested in hymns? In the following discussion,
the passages in which time concepts are articulated are analyzed for
frequency and content, although the qualitative analysis is given priority.
Selection criteria for relevant passages include the occurrence of the nouns
“time(s)” [Zeit(en)], “future” [Zukunft], “day” [Tag], “night” [Nacht],
“morning” [Morgen], “evening” [Abend], “year” [Jahr], and “hour” [Stunde],
as well as the adjectives derived from these nouns. Time adverbs, such as
“today” [heute] and “yesterday” [gestern], as well as seasonal concepts, have
been taken into consideration. Compound nouns, such as “time on earth”
[Erdenzeit] and “time of grace” [Gnadenzeit], have naturally also been dis-