Sing to the Lord a New Song: John Calvin and the Spiritual Discipline of Metrical Psalmody

Authors

Brandon J. Bellanti, Cedarville UniversityFollow

Document Type

Conference Presentation

Event Date

4-3-2014

Conference/Event

National Conference on Undergraduate Research

Location

Lexington, KY

Abstract

Music has the power to shape us, to mold our thoughts and actions, to teach us. It is this truth that the Protestant reformer John Calvin recognized and sought to employ as he included the singing of psalms in his liturgy. In addition to corporate worship, Calvin encouraged his congregation to view the singing of the Psalms as a spiritual discipline; that by singing, people would be trained in holiness. To accomplish this goal, he worked to collect metrical psalms—psalms rewritten with meter and rhyme in the vernacular language—into a unified psalter that could be used in daily life.

Keywords

Calvin, psalmody

Recommended Citation

Bellanti, Brandon J., "Sing to the Lord a New Song: John Calvin and the Spiritual Discipline of Metrical Psalmody" (2014). Music and Worship Student Presentations. 15.
https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/music_and_worship_student_presentations/15

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.