The Word was very God

Athanasius (4th c) is a name used more often as an historic symbol of Christian orthodoxy than as an author to be studied today nearly 1700 years later. At Cambridge over Easter 1996 Christopher Idle was filling a gap in his knowledge by reading (in translation) the short classic De Incarnatione, or Athanasius on the Incarnation, ‘and was immediately struck by the sheer poetry of its opening pages, arising directly from its theology’. He began some Short Metre verses with what later became line 5; in Sept, Agnes Tang offered some tunes to several texts including 551 and an unnamed tune for George Herbert’s Teach me, my God and King. They agreed that the tune and the new words were well-matched, but the composer preferred to rearrange her music as SMD, and the text was adjusted accordingly. Her tune RE’EMI is named after an old friend.

The hymn was sung at a Carol Service on 15 Dec 1996 at Christ Church Old Kent Road, SE London, where the author and composer then both belonged. The word ‘joke’ in stz 1, though not unique in hymnody, has been questioned; whatever else it does, it reflects the thought of Athanasius here and the mockery of many from the Gospel narratives onwards. Praise! is the first hymnal to include this composition, and it featured in a celebration when the book was formally launched on 27 May 2000.

b Alexandria, Egypt c296, d Alexandria c373. After education probably in the city’s catechetical sch, he became sec to the bishop, attending him at the Council of Nicaea in 325 and succeeding him 3 years later. Refusing to compromise with the powerful Arian party (followers of Arius who held a diminished view of the person of Christ), he was deposed and exiled in 336. Returning in 337, he again had to leave in 339, this time for Rome. The western church supported his doctrinal stand, but a longer spell back in his former position (346–356) was once more cut short by the opposition. He was exiled again in 362 and 365–6, but was posthumously vindicated at the Council of Constantinople in 381. His major works include De Incarnatione, written in his 20s some time before 318. As the most consistent defender of orthodox Christian faith at the points then under attack, he wrote widely on the deity and humanity of Christ, and the divine nature of the Holy Spirit. In 2003 Prof Thomas C Oden described his books as ‘life-transforming works that made waves for many centuries, including our own’; John Piper has recently (2006) highlighted his delight in ‘out-rejoicing our adversaries’. As he does not seem hitherto to have found a place in hymnody, Praise! here becomes something of a pioneer. No.333.

b Bromley, Kent 1938. Eltham Coll, St Peter’s Coll Oxford (BA, English), Clifton Theol Coll Bristol; ordained in 1965 to a Barrow-in-Furness curacy. He spent 30 years in CofE parish ministry, some in rural Suffolk, mainly in inner London (Peckham, Poplar and Limehouse). Author of over 300 hymn texts, mainly Scripture based, collected in Light upon the River (1998) and Walking by the River (2008), Trees along the River (2018), and now appearing in some 300 books and other publications; see also the dedication of EP1 (p3) to his late wife Marjorie. He served on 5 editorial groups from Psalm Praise (1973) to Praise!; his writing includes ‘Grove’ booklets Hymns in Today’s Language (1982) and Real Hymns, Real Hymn Books (2000), and The Word we preach, the words we sing (Reform, 1998). He edited the quarterly News of Hymnody for 10 years, and briefly the Bulletin of the Hymn Society, on whose committee he served at various times between 1984 and 2006; and addressed British and American Hymn Socs. Until 1996 he often exchanged draft texts with Michael Perry (qv) for mutual criticism and encouragement. From 1995 he was engaged in educational work and writing from home in Peckham, SE London, until retirement in 2003; following his return to Bromley after a gap of 40 years, he has attended Holy Trinity Ch Bromley Common and Hayes Lane Baptist Ch. Owing much to the Proclamation Trust, he also belongs to the Anglican societies Crosslinks and Reform, together with CND and the Christian pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation. A former governor of 4 primary schools, he has also written songs for school assemblies set to familiar tunes, and (in 2004) Grandpa’s Amazing Poems and Awful Pictures. His bungalow is smoke-free, alcohol-free, car-free, gun-free and TV-free. Nos.13, 18, 21, 23A, 24B, 27B, 28, 31, 35, 36, 37, 48, 50, 68, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 85, 89, 92, 95, 102, 108, 109, 114, 118, 119A, 121A, 125, 128, 131, 145B, 157, 176, 177, 193*, 313*, 333, 339, 388, 392, 420, 428, 450, 451, 463, 478, 506, 514, 537, 548, 551, 572, 594, 597, 620, 621, 622, 636, 668, 669, 693, 747, 763, 819, 914, 917, 920, 945, 954, 956, 968, 976, 1003, 1012, 1084, 1098, 1138, 1151, 1158, 1159, 1178, 1179, 1181, 1201, 1203, 1204, 1205, 1209, 1210, 1211, 1212, 1221, 1227, 1236, 1237, 1244, 1247, 5017, 5018, 5019, 5020.