Friday, May 7, 2025

It is the 7th of March 2025, Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Any accounting of “popular theology,” that is, the theology as it is understood by the people, must account for hymnody. Back in the day on this program I used to repeat the Latin refrain constantly “lex orandi, lex credendi” which means something like “how we worship is how we believe”. The early church figures like Ambrose and Pope Gregory saw the reform of song as essential to the church's life, which would carry on through the Reformation. Luther’s hymns are didactic (and can be very long by modern standards). John Calvin was careful to use the Psalms as a hymnbook and his followers would express themselves in metric psalms and some later with psalms “re-written” with a Christological focus.

Amongst the Danes and Norwegians, the name to know was Thomas Kingo, 1634 to 1703, and he represented a high point in Danish hymnody and theology. But like all art, as it ages subsequent generations have to decide when to hold the old forms and when to agitate for modern forms. Such was the case in the 1760’s when the Danish “Patriotic Spectator” called for an improvement in Danish hymnody. The Society of Letters called for a competition, sent in ten hymns to known melodies. And with this competition arose an obscure woman- Birgitte Hertz, nee Jensen, later Boye… known best as Birgitte Boye (her second husbands name) she would submit 20 new hymns to the competition and 19 of those would make their way into the new Danish hymnal- 1783’s “Guldberg” Hymnal which, by the time it was finished had over one hundred and forty new hymns and translations of other hymns.  According to historian Gracia Grindal, it would make Birgitte the first significant major contribution by a woman to a hymnal and the most significant work on a Lutheran hymnal until the late 19th century.

And that name… pronounced a little better this time (or, more Nordic and less Spanish)—is Gracia Grindal, who has not only opened up the life and work of Birgitte Boye for us but also did for a recent favorite, Dorothe Engelbretsdatter. These biographies are part of her 2017 work “Preaching From Home: The Stories of Seven Lutheran Women Hymn Writers,” a job I can’t recommend enough.

Birgitte Jensen (then) Hertz (and finally) Boye was born on March 7, 1742, to Dorothea and Jens. He was a steward of forestland on the east coast of Denmark, and Birgitte would be the oldest. She would become engaged to Herman Hertz, also a steward for the King's land, and they would have four children. After his death, she would marry Hans Boye, a judicial advisor.

Birgitte seems to have been given a good private education in Scripture and Luther’s Catechism. She was a product of her age, between Pietism and the Enlightenment, he prose is warmly personal if not what others have called both “lofty” and “laughable”. In fact, Grindal’s work on Birgitte asks how the most famous hymn writer of her age has become virtually unknown today. Grindal’s answer is that these works were very good and very popular and VERY much of their time, as tastes changed, her work was discarded.

The hymnal to which she is most connected, “Guldberg’s Hymnal,” would be translated into Norwegian, however, and the work of Birgitte spent more than a century more as a favorite to those other Nordic folk. Perhaps some of our Norwegian American friends remember finishing their lefse and herring in time for church and hymns like “Rejoice, Rejoice this Happy Morn”, “He is Arisen, Glorious Word” and “O Light of God’s Most Wonderous Love”.

As a woman with an education and ability to read and translate many languages she also tried her hand at odes and national epics based on the Nordic myths… and we might note that these are also so tied to late 18th and early 19th century art forms there has not been a rush to translate her works into English. Over at the CHA favorite hymnary.org you can find some of her hymns in English, Norwegian and Malagasy (those Lutheran pietist missionaries got around!) And Grindal has at least five more Lutheran women “preaching from Home” through their hymns in her book.

Birgitte Jannsen Hertz Boye would live and work until her death in 1824, born on this day in 1742, she was 82 years old.

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary, where the NT reading is the retelling of the Exodus in Acts, and that story in Exodus, hear from Exodus 6

2 God also said to Moses, “I am the Lord. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself fully known to them. 4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners. 5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.

6 “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.’”

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 7th of March 2025 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who wonders if Egyptian Yoke might be a fun Middle Eastern breakfast restaurant… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who just read about Lefse wrapped hot dogs… I’ll stick with the sugar and butter… maybe sour cream and leeks… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.