Reasonable Worship and Spirit-rich Hymns: Themes in 18th-Century Hymnology

Reasonable Worship and Spirit-rich Hymns: Themes in 18th-Century Hymnology

Date: Friday, November 6, 2026
Time: 5:00 PM
Location: Gambrell Room, Scheide Hall, Princeton Theological Seminary
Guest Lecturer: Dr. Joyce Irwin

Musical theologian and historian of early modern religious thought, Joyce Irwin, will present a lecture on 18th-century German hymnody. She will discuss differing positions of the time concerning the retention of old hymns and the creation of new ones, as well as the contentious debate regarding the appropriateness of new musical styles in worship. You are invited to learn more about how these tensions between representatives of Lutheran Orthodoxy, Pietism, and the Enlightenment would enrich the hymnological tradition for centuries to come.

Free and Open to the Public!

Co-sponsored by the Central New Jersey Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.