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Title: | Credal hymns as 'summa theologiae': new credal hymns in Rwanda after the 1994 war and genocide |
Author: | Spijker, Gerard van 't |
Year: | 2001 |
Periodical: | Exchange: Journal of Contemporary Christianities in Context |
Volume: | 30 |
Issue: | 3 |
Pages: | 256-275 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Rwanda |
Subjects: | Protestant churches civil wars Christianity religious songs |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.1163/157254301X00165 |
Abstract: | The events of the civil war of 1990-1994 which finally resulted in a genocide in which between 500,000 and 800,000 people were killed, cast a dark shadow over the people living in Rwanda. This paper examines the question of how in these days the Christian faith is expressed in the new hymns which are sung during Sunday church services in the Protestant churches of present-day Rwanda. It focuses on the way the memories and the traumas of the recent past are reflected in these songs and bear an impact on the experience of the Christian faith. Research was carried out in 1996 and 2000 in parishes belonging to five different Protestant denominations: Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians and Pentecostals. The author concludes that the hymns sung by these laymen choirs reveal a particular way of listening to the Gospel, and therefore express a popular theology. In this theology human suffering and the victory over it are the main themes. Moreover, the credal hymns of the Rwandese laymen choirs should not simply be characterized as songs of consolation, but as songs of consolation and empowerment. Notes, ref. |