Tuesday, April 03, 2007

We are Devo.



D-E-V-O. As in devolution. Particularly cultural devolution.

To put it in a religious context (specifically, a Catholic religious context), let's see what passed for hymnody in the 12th century (as translated from the original Latin in the 17th and 19th centuries):

O Sacred Head, Surrounded

O sacred head, surrounded
by crown of piercing thorn!
O bleeding head, so wounded,
reviled and put to scorn!
Our sins have marred the glory
of thy most holy face,
yet angel hosts adore thee
and tremble as they gaze

I see thy strength and vigor
all fading in the strife,
and death with cruel rigor,
bereaving thee of life;
O agony and dying!
O love to sinners free!
Jesus, all grace supplying,
O turn thy face on me.

In this thy bitter passion,
Good Shepherd, think of me
with thy most sweet compassion,
unworthy though I be:
beneath thy cross abiding
for ever would I rest,
in thy dear love confiding,
and with thy presence blest.

Words: Henry Williams Baker (1821-1877), 1861;
after Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153);
and Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676)


NOW, LET'S SEE what passes for hymnody today:

Here in This Place (Gather Us In)

1.
Here in this place, new light is streaming,
now is the darkness vanished away.
See, in this space, our fears and our dreamings,
brought here to you in the light of this day.
Gather us in - the lost and forsaken,
gather us in - the blind and the lame.
Call to us now, and we shall awaken,
we shall arise at the sound of our name.

2.
We are the young - our lives are a mystery,
we are the old - who yearn for your face.
We have been sung throughout all of history,
called to be light to the whole human race.
Gather us in - the rich and the haughty,
gather us in - the proud and the strong.
Give us a heart so meek and so lowly,
give us the courage to enter the song.

3.
Here we will take the wine and the water,
here we will take the bread of new birth.
Here you shall call your sons and your daughters,
call us anew to be salt for the earth.
Give us to drink the wine of compassion,
give us to eat the bread that is you.
Nourish us well, and teach us to fashion
lives that are holy and hearts that are true.

4.
Not in the dark of buildings confining,
not in some heaven, light years away,
but here in this place, the new light is shining;
now is the Kingdom, now is the day.
Gather us in - and hold us forever,
gather us in - and make us your own.
Gather us in - all peoples together,
fire of love in our flesh and our bone.

Words and music: Marty Haugen (b. 1952)


And you know it gets even worse than this.

HOW IS IT, EXACTLY, that we have gone from mature spiritual reflection -- in an age when we were years and years from figuring out the gunpowder thing and the vast majority of Western Civilization was yet utterly illiterate -- to self-centered, self-congratulatory adolescent glop in our modern age of democracy, widespread literacy, advanced science and landing spacecraft on distant planets?

We are Devo. D-E-V-O, with pride coming before the fall.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I find that you were narrow minded in your conclusions. The reason that the songs have change is that culture "people" have changed. were not magoritly illiterate anymore and it is out of the striving to find god in our own way that the new songs arrive. Here in this Place is not a song that is sung in traditional church, but rather a bible camp or just a bunch of youth running around. For it is easily played by guitar unlike the traditional songs that generally require an organ and a few fumbled versus in order to sing. civilization hasn't devolved. not by any means. But rather curiosity and striving to find the own understanding of what life, god, compassion, and love is. Another tid bit of information. that song "traditional" would be sung every sunday for a year or two then change. So it was rather like recitation then actual praise. Meaning that it would just be said and not ment.