One of the most significant facts of Christian theology is that the death and resurrection of the man Jesus Christ empowers not only the redemption of all mankind, but the renewal of the entire created order.
That's a theological fact that I suspect we rarely take into account when we approach the communion table.
But today's hymn--in, as best as I could discern, its original form--manages to seamlessly unite the doctrines of creation and reconciliation. While "For the Beauty of the Earth" is generally regarded as a hymn simply oriented toward the goodness of creation, it was originally written as a communion hymn.
It's author, Folliett Sanford Pierpoint, was a Cambridge scholar who taught classics as a schoolmaster and wrote poetry. He first published this hymn in Lyra Eucharistica, a collection of hymns dedicated for Holy Communion, with the title of "The Sacrifice of Praise." That was in 1864. The hymn quickly proliferated the corpus of hymnals, receiving numerous modifications that stripped it of some of its most potent communion language, and was often used specifically for children.
But a communion hymn it was originally, and so that is the form in which we shall treat it.
Login to read more
Sign in or create a free account to access Subscriber-only content.
Topics: