The Setting Of Hymns In The Greco-roman World (biblical)

Singing hymns to deity was an established practice in the Greco-Roman world long before the emergence of Christianity. Christian hymns differed from pagan hymnody, however, in celebrating a redemptive historical event; they have a "prophetic" quality. With Stephen and those who followed him, the early Christian mission reached out to offer its message to those who lived in Greco-Roman society. In that world the singing of hymns to the deities of contemporary religious cults was already an established practice. The use of hymns in corporate and private worship in that culture went back a long way, but it reached its high point at a time when the finest and most sensitive spirits in late classical civilization were becoming conscious of their need of "salvation. " The immediate occasion was the onset of pessimism and despair caused partly by Greek science, which offered a naturalistic explanation of the universe, and partly by Eastern astrology, which placed a vast distance between hum…