The eleven essays in this volume, many of which were first presented at a conference "Hymnody in American Protestantism", sponsored by the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals with generous funding from the Lilly Endowment, make a strong case that hymns are both a fascinating and an irreplaceable type of primary source document for both intellectual and social religious history. The chapters also extol the centrality of hymns in American Protestant worship services and evangelical life.

The book is divided into three sections: 1) In the beginning was Watts, 2) Hymns and the ordering of Protestant Life, 3) Hymns as Good (or Bad?) Theology. Contributors to this volume include Mark Noll, Esther Rothenbusch Crookshank, Rochelle A. Stackhouse, Robert A. Schneider, Kevin Kee, Thomas E. Bergler, Felicia Piscitelli, Virginia Lieson Brereton, Jeffrey VanderWilt, Susan Wise Bauer, and Richard J. Mouw.

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