I’ve just published a new book: The Inn of God’s Forgiveness and Other Hymns for the Progressive Church.  It’s a collection of eight new hymns, each with a chapter about the theology it expresses.  The hymns in the book are free: they may be downloaded at this page, or copied from the book, and they come with a Creative Commons license that allows unlimited copying for non-commercial use.  There are also some spiritual exercises in the book, which may likewise be downloaded and copied at this page.

I wrote these hymns because the hymnals and other collections available to me didn’t have enough of what I wanted: singable hymns that reflect a progressive Christian theology.

What do I mean by “singable”? It’s a very subjective thing, of course, and differs from one congregation to another. I wrote these hymns to be sung in my own congregations. Those congregations were, on the whole, quite elderly, and if socially progressive, were musically conservative. If I introduced songs with any syncopation—if there were any odd chordal progressions—if the tempo was more than moderate—if there was any rhythmic complexity, even so much as a rest on a downbeat—the congregation was half lost. Of course, not everyone in a congregation will sing at all, but I wanted our singing to be as inclusive as possible. I didn’t want to leave the weaker singers (who are, often, the oldest singers) feeling embarrassed or left out. So I tried to make these hymns harmonically and rhythmically simple. They’re also rather repetitive: for example, many of them have refrains, which help timid singers build confidence.

Then, what do I mean by “progressive”? When people ask me what I mean when I call myself a progressive Christian, I tend to offer a list of things I disagree with. For example: I do not find the theory of evolution offensive or even particularly controversial. I do not believe that the Bible is infallible, inerrant, or literally true in all its parts; it is not, to me, the word of God. I do not judge people based on their sexual orientation, and I don’t think God does either. I do not think God’s judgment takes the form of punishing sinners with eternal torment. I do not think that Jesus died to pay the price for our sins. I do not try to make converts of people who are being well served by other religious traditions. And so on—and as I speak this way, I find that I am defining progressive Christianity by listing the aspects of conventional Christianity it rejects.

But in the end, that isn’t enough. It isn’t enough to say what you reject; you must also say what you claim. Hymn-writing turns out to be a good discipline for this. Perhaps any theological writing that is strictly negative is inadequate—but any hymnody that is strictly negative is obviously inadequate. You have only to imagine trying to turn the previous paragraph into a song to feel the flaw in it. You might perhaps turn it into an amusing series of negative verses, but those verses would be begging to be answered by a refreshingly positive refrain.

So the hymns in this collection are my attempts to express aspects of a positive progressive theology. They are not meant to give a systematic statement of that theology; there are plenty of topics unaddressed here, and there’s plenty of room for a sequel. These hymns are, in the old sense, occasional pieces. They were written for particular occasions in my spiritual journey.

I hope they will be a blessing in yours. If you find the hymns interesting and/or useful, please support this work by buying the book.