Hymn of the Week: March 1, 2021
Hymn of the Week: What Wondrous Love is This
Hymn 213 in Glory to God
Text: American folk hymn 1811
Music: Walker’s Southern Harmony, 1835; harmonized Carlton R. Young 1963
What Wondrous Love is This
What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul?
What wondrous love is this, O my soul?
What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul?
When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down beneath God’s righteous frown,
Christ laid aside his crown for my soul, for my soul,
Christ laid aside his crown for my soul.
To God and to the Lamb I will sing, I will sing,
To God and to the Lamb I will sing,
To God and to the Lamb who is the great I Am,
While millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing,
While millions join the theme, I will sing.
And when from death I’m free I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on,
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on,
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing and joyful be,
And through eternity I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on,
And through eternity I’ll sing on.
We have few clues as to the author and composer of this profound hymn of wonder and the love of Christ for all humanity.
"What Wondrous Love Is This" captures our attention right from the beginning with its simplicity and persistence – "What wondrous love is this" sung three times. This repetition is not the sign of a weak poet who has a narrow range of expression, but a fellow traveler who has experienced profoundly the sacrificial love of Christ and can only express again and again – "What wondrous love is this." It is the kind of repetition that sounds trite when spoken, yet gains strength and power through singing. These are not the carefully crafted words of a theologian, but utterances directly from the heart or, even more profoundly, from the soul.
Thanks to the careful work of scholars, we do have some suggestions about the origins of this hymn. According to correspondence with Carlton Young, the text appeared as early as 1811 in a collection by Stith Mead titled General Selection of the Newest and Most Admired Hymns and Spiritual Songs Now in Use (second enlarged edition). William J. Reynolds traced a variant of this text to Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Original and Selected by Starke Dupuy, also published in 1811.
Famous Appalachian folksong collector George Pullen Jackson noted that the structure of the text was very similar to the English ballad "Captain Kidd." Robert Kidd was a pirate who was executed in 1701. All of this suggests a song with its origins in oral tradition sung in several variants but eventually stabilized by being printed in a widely circulated collection.
Hymnologist Harry Eskew suggests that the tune first appeared in the second edition (1840) of William Walker's shaped-note collection, The Southern Harmony, and Musical Companion (originally 1835). Walker himself (also known as "Singing Billy" Walker) states unambiguously that the song may be attributed to a James Christopher of Spartanburg, South Carolina. Scholars such as Deborah Carlton Loftis find this very suspicious for many musicological and hymnological reasons. We can say, however, that The Southern Harmony put this song on the lips of many singers in the antebellum south.
The text is sometimes attributed to Alexander Means (1801-1883), a physician, professor, President of Emory College (now University) from 1854-1855, and a licensed preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church. While an impressive individual for sure, he would have been only ten years old when the text appeared in 1811 in the collection cited above by Stith Mead.
Dr. Hawn (who wrote this article) is a distinguished professor of church music at Perkins School of Theology. He is also the director of the seminary's sacred music program.
Enjoy Robert Shaw and Alice Parker’s stirring arrangement of this timeless and magnificent hymn.
