AMAZING GRACE:
A Cultural History of the Beloved Hymn
By James Walvin
University of California Press.
197 pages. £14.45
ISBN 978 0 520 391 826
What do a small congregation in rural Buckinghamshire, the cotton fields of the Deep South, Judy Collins, and the ill-fated march on the Capitol building in Washington on 6 January 2021, have in common? The answer lies in John Newton’s majestic hymn, Amazing Grace.
In this volume, James Walvin, Professor of History Emeritus at the University of York, has provided us with an illuminating history of this much-loved and universally acclaimed hymn.
He charts the story of John Newton from his childhood days, through his brutal experiences as captain of the slave ship, Duke of Argylle, through the peak of his hymn-writing days as curate in St Peter and St Paul Church, Olney, to his support of William Wilberforce in campaigning for the abolition of the slave trade. However, this is not a biography of John Newton; it’s the story of his best-known hymn, Amazing Grace. How did it come to command such unrivalled affection in all corners of the Western world?
This book will disappoint those who just want to revel in the undeserved kindness of God. It’s probably inevitable that the author who ‘abandoned church’ in 1960 should focus primarily on the sociology of the hymn, rather than its theology. However, it will intrigue those who are willing to see how God in His grace has used a simple Christian hymn, written for a local church congregation in 1772, as a freedom song for the slaves of the Deep South, as perfect material for the USA’s burgeoning music industry, and as a universally acclaimed comfort blanket for the deeply uneasy Disunited States of America.
Whatever the context, the words speak for themselves. What’s so amazing about this hymn? Grace!
