Speak Up Saturday–Book Review- Then Sings My Soul 3

Wow, it’s been a loooongggg time since I got this book! Remember what I said about 2012 not being nice to me? Yeah, book reviews are one of those things that fell aside…

From the Publisher:

The long-awaited third installment!

In 2003, Robert Morgan released what would become a future classic for over a million readers, a unique book entitled Then Sings My Soul.  This collection of the world’s greatest hymns and the stories behind them stirred an entire generation to better understand the heritage of our faith through song.

Now, in the long-awaited third volume of this series, Morgan expands his material to include the great history of worship, the first biblical hymns, biographical sketches of the most interesting composers, and almost 60 generations of hymn singing. The new book also includes a collection of the greatest hymns you’ve never heard, with lead-sheets included.

All of this is in addition to even more standard hymns and the stories of the composers behind them.

Morgan’s conclusion guides the reader into enjoying all of God’s music, blending the old and the new into a symphony of praise that keeps the worship alive for a new generation.

The first thing that you notice when you hold this book is the pages. They are thick, uneven in an antiqued sort of way. It’s comforting. Matches the theme of the book. I know each book in the series is like this, but I still like it :-)

The sections in this book are The History of Hymnody, Do You Know These Hymns?, Six Hymn Stories I Love to Tell, and Hymning in Private and in Public.

I appreciate his breadth of knowledge and research that went into this book. Each hymn has a full page of information about the hymn, which is interesting and relevant to the hymn. The music and words are included for each hymn, which if I ever get back to playing the piano, I will love having.

Not growing up singing hymns and not having many hymns in our current church, I really enjoy reading about the history of the hymns. The whole premise of the book, as stated on the front cover, is Drawing Strength from the Great Hymns of Our Faith. I agree. I think we have a lot to learn from hymns and can draw closer to God through them.

Thank you to Robert J. Morgan for allowing us young’ns to feel the power of the hymns through this book and the other two in the series.

~S

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book in exchange for an honest review from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.