Traditional Versus Contemporary Worship

Note From Monique Ingalls on Jonathan Edwards and the anecdote falsely attributed to him: 

*As in just about any time period, there were debates about old vs. new music in the church in Edwards’ day; however, the categories of “traditional hymns” and “contemporary choruses” as they are presented in the anecdote did not exist until the 20th Century. Most Puritans of Edwards’s day believed Christians should only sing psalms only, unaccompanied by instruments and in unison with no harmony. Towards the end of his life, Edwards was pretty progressive for allowing hymns “of human composure” (i.e., with texts that weren’t straight from the Divinely inspired psalms) to be sung in worship. So, for Edwards, “traditional” church songs were psalms taken straight from Scripture, made to rhyme, and sung in a very plain style, while “contemporary” songs were Isaac Watts’ hymns sung in 4-part harmony. Edwards was a stern Puritan preacher whose sermons are, quite frankly, dry and academic–he would never have used such a witty, folksy anecdote in a sermon. And, as one final nit-picky point, a quick Google search puts Edwards’ death at 1758, a couple of decades before the author claims he was writing in the 1780s.

Source: Worship Leader

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