Amazing Grace

[dspen2005]

Hey guys,
I have been trying to find some information concerning the Theological presented in the hymn, "amazing grace"...... can any one help me? or offer the problems, themselves?

[phatcatholic]

well, lets get the lyrics out there first:[list]Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me,
His Word my hope secures;
He will my Shield and Portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, Who called me here below,
Shall be forever mine.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.
[/list]i try to find something on the theology behind this song sometime later....

[phatcatholic]

from [url="http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/113/11.0.html"][b]this article[/b][/url] we can pick out a few paragraphs that address the theology behind this song:[list]
[*]Often Newton wrote hymns to match the biblical passage from which he was planning to teach. One of these hymns was "Amazing Grace," and we can date the composition of the hymn because we know the text (1 Chron. 17:16–17) and the day he preached on it (Jan. 1, 1773). The passage records King David's response to God's promise to make his name like the greatest men of the earth. "Who am I . . . that thou hast brought me hitherto?" Turner recounts the main points of Newton's exposition of the passage and shows how the verses of "Amazing Grace" reinforce Newton's pastoral teaching.
[*]The definitive moment came about 1900 when Chicago hymnwriter and publisher Edwin Othello Excell refined the tune and muted the theology. Excell moved the music a long way from its shape-note roots and made it acceptable to America's emerging middle class. He also dropped Newton's final lines and substituted a quatrain from the hymn "Jerusalem, My Happy Home"—the now familiar "10,000 years" verse. Harriet Beecher Stowe had added that verse to Newton's text in Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), but until Excell substituted it, it had not appeared in a hymnbook as part of "Amazing Grace." American religious culture had shifted from the Calvinism of Jonathan Edwards and the First Great Awakening to the Arminianism of Dwight Moody and Charles Finney. The emphasis was no longer on God choosing people, but on people choosing God. And the substitution of that final verse made the hymn less likely to offend the new sensibilities.
[*]Excell's updating of Newton was a key step in the gradual transmogrification of the hymn into a self-help anthem. Seventy years later, when folksingers like Judy Collins, Joan Baez, and Arlo Guthrie were popularizing the hymn in secular circles, the human potential movement was in full flower. With the words God and Lord missing from the most common versions of the text, there was nothing to keep the new generation from treating grace as a term for the way life seems to heal and reward those who pick themselves up and try again.
[/list]does that help?

Edited April 3, 2005 by phatcatholic

[phatcatholic]

if you are really interested in this song, it looks like there's a book all about it:
--[url="http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?p=1004924&item_no=002182"][b]Amazing Grace: The Story of America's Most Beloved Song[/b][/url]

you may want to check that out. it's not very expensive, which is good

[dspen2005]

Thank you for that response but what is it that makes Amazing Grace problematic from a CAtholic perspective. I have read articles that discuss the problems with the song on a Theological basis because of the its overemphasis on grace alone, or something along these lines....

[phatcatholic]

but, we believe in grace alone! are these articles online? if so, please provide the links. that will help me to see what u are struggling with.

[journeyman]

he may be remembering some discussion over on the converts board - Protestant Hymns thread

[url="http://phorum.phatmass.com/index.php?showtopic=19804"]http://phorum.phatmass.com/index.php?showtopic=19804[/url]