Journal

Notes on 'Praying Twice' by Brian Wren

Posted on May 11th, 2009, in the morning

Taken from Augustine's quote "Whoever sings [to God in worship], prays twice", subtitled 'The Music and Words of Congregational Song' and billed as "a valuable resource for church musicians, pastors, and other worship leaders."

Ch 1 - A long but fast-paced scene-setting chapter zooming back in time offering short fictionalised vignettes of congregational worship from London in 1970 CE to Israel in 1200 BCE.

Ch 2 - On the importance and unique character of congregational singing in the Christian faith. Lots of helpful ideas here.

Ch 3 - A practical section on how to encourage congregational singing. Some of his points are more relevant than others beyond his own tradition (Liberal, Western, Protestant) and there are certainly points missing that would be relevant to other traditions but there are also many relevant encouragements.

Ch 4 - A cautiously positive outsider's take on contemporary worship music. Very much written for church leaders and directors or worship unfamiliar with and perhaps hostile towards 'the driving beat' which Wren says characterises the style.

Ch 5 - Addressing the importance of lyrics in assessing the value of hymns and songs. Here the different theological and social emphases of Wren's tradition from mine feel very obvious. To the extent that this is a matter of emphasis rather than substance the discussion is relevant to my situation, but a number of points go further, into the territory of interesting-but-from-a-fair-distance (e.g. not liking the use of blindness as a metaphor - which, in fairness, he does accept as biblical - in deference to those who are physically blind.)

Ch 6 - Wren considers the value of Choruses. After an interesting discussion of Taize he then engages with 'Evangelical Choruses' first by critiquing their sometimes cavalier approach to scripure (I agree!), secondly by suggesting a narrative framwork through which choruses could express the biblical story, and finally and most extensively in terms of their use of "God-as-King" language, which he regards as anachronistic and patriarchal. This last section is an interesting discussion but based on assumptions or assertions that I find problematic enough that it's hard not to engage unsympathetically.

Ch 7 - Early in this chapter on 'Chant and Ritual Song' Wren describes the historic Trinitarian creeds as being "classic but questionable" and asks "how shall we replace them?" This seems an extraordinary starting point! He engages extensively with Gail Ramshaw's book 'God beyond gender' to grapple with the question.

His suggested alternatives include quasi-Trinitarian formulations including 'Sending One', 'Seeking One' and 'Greeting One'. While reasonable in their own right, set up as alternatives to the classic Trinitarian formulations I must confess I stuggle not to find these kinds of things spurious. It's not that I can't see the sense, and to an extent (unsympathetic as I am), the value of what Wren is trying to achieve, but in execution it seems to reduce the identity of the persons of the Trinity to non-personal aspects of their nature or activity (and in frustratingly vague terms at that.)

Wren emphasises the poverty of human language (including the ideas of 'Father' and 'Son') in trying to express the nature of God, which I accept, but I just can't accept that on purely ideological (i.e. feminist) grounds we should abandon the name 'Father' that Jesus uses of God in the gospels, and 'my Son' that his Father uses for him. My view is that, whatever our concerns about inclusivity, we simply have to accept the starting point that Scripture and the Incarnation give us in understanding God, otherwise we are surely just inventing ideas about God to suit our sensibilities.

"Who is excluded by this?" is certainly an important question to ask of how we lead congregational worship and what we sing, but at this point I feel that Wren is using his idea that worship should be 'just' (an idea which I certainly don't disagree with) as a means to say worhip should be 'politically correct'. His definition of 'just' is very much orientated towards individual rights and contemporary sensitivities; I have serious doubts as to whether that's the right definition of 'just' and the point is never discussed.

Wren finishes the chapter with a discussion of how to render YHWH in worship. Agenda notwithstanding, Ramshaw's suggestion of 'Living One' - partly an allusion to 'I am who I am' - seems quite reasonable.

Ch 8 - A tour of various aspects of understanding hymns as poetry ranging from meter to typesetting to word selection with several case studies. One case study is Isaac Watts' 'Nature with Open Voice Stands', which I must pick up. Wren makes the interesting comment "if we continue to sing such a hymn, it is because it has been able to travel from Watts' assumptions to ours."

Ch 9 - On changing hymn lyrics, arguing that there is a long tradition of amending hymn lyrics and that ultimately artistic integrity is less important than their function in exression the communal faith. Lots of his examples seem unnecessary to me, not having a problem with gendered God-language, but the general points are helpful.

Ch 10 - Engaging with the question of how hymns relate to theology. Wren argues for a broader definition of what it means to 'do theology' than systematic enquiry, briefly investigating thology expressed in various arts, and concluding that the best hymns can "[expand] our knowledge in ways inaccessible to reasoned exposition".

In conclusion

In many passages this book is helpful and even profound, but I found I was distracted by the pervasive feminist theological agenda (as evidenced above!) I think 'Praying Twice' would have had much more significant relevance to my own situation if that agenda had played a lesser part in the whole.

As it is, I feel a double distance from both the worshipping tradition Wren writes from and significant aspects of his theological perspective. It leaves me feeling very much an outsider to the worldview of the book. A well written, thought-provoking read, but definitely (to use Wren's own category) "other people's songs".