Centennial of The Lutheran Hymnary

The Lutheran Hymnary was my grandfather’s book. He was born in 1916 right after the Hymnary was printed (1913) and just before most of the Norwegian Lutherans in America united to form a new church body. The congregation in Scarville, Iowa, where he was a member, continued to use the 1913 Hymnary until the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary (1996) was published three years after his death.
Early in the twentieth century, the three major Norwegian Lutheran synods began working toward union, and a joint hymnbook project seemed like a natural step in this direction. The preface of the new hymnbook spelled out the reasons for this collaboration: “The considerations which prompted the creation of the joint committee were, chiefly, the common need of an adequate and satisfactory English hymn book; the fact of a common faith and confession as well as a common inheritance of Lutheran hymnody; the probability of getting a better hymn book through united endeavor than by separate effort; and finally, the desirability of a common hymnary, especially in the event of a union of the Church bodies concerned.”
For the first time, many hymns beloved by Norwegian Lutherans were offered in English, such as “Like the Golden Sun Ascending,” “Behold a Host, Arrayed in White,” and “Built on the Rock.” The Hymnary also contained the Bugenhagen order of service used for centuries by Norwegians and Danes. Many good translations of German Lutheran hymns were included as well. Because of the time-consuming and difficult task of translation, the hymnbook committee selected numerous English hymns by non-Lutheran authors. Some of these were welcome additions to the Lutheran worship tradition, but others were not retained in later Lutheran hymnbooks because of their weak content.
The congregations of the reorganized Norwegian Synod (now called the ELS) used The Lutheran Hymnary until the Synodical Conference produced The Lutheran Hymnal in 1941. Some congregations of the ELS adopted this book. Others lamented the absence of the Bugenhagen order of service and the lack of Scandinavian hymns and kept using the 1913 Hymnary.
In 1996, the Worship Committee of the ELS produced the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary. This book brought together the best hymns of the Scandinavian and German traditions while also retaining the liturgies unique to both. Comparing the 1913 Hymnary to the 1996 one, 55% of the hymns are the same. Comparing the 1941 Hymnal to the 1996 Hymnary, almost 70% of the hymns are the same.
My grandfather never saw a copy of the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary. But he would have been glad for a book that retained the best of Scandinavian hymnody while also bringing back other good Lutheran hymns that had been lost. For the Christ-centered hymns and liturgy we continue to enjoy, we sing with the Norwegian Lutherans of old: “God be praised for His glad tidings!”
Peter Faugstad is Associate Pastor of Parkland Lutheran Church in Tacoma, Washington.