# Church history and the worship wars?



## jwright82 (Jul 3, 2012)

Is there any study that has been done as to what historically was done in the early church as far as songs in worship and when and why did it change? When did hymns come into use and what were the reasons for that? Or did no one even care?

I say this because we do use in a sense history to argue over infant baptism but why don’t we use that in the whole worship wars or do we?


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## R. Scott Clark (Jul 3, 2012)

James,

There has been a fair amount of work on this. There are references to other work in the chapter on worship in the footnotes in RRC for starters


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## jwright82 (Jul 3, 2012)

Has there been any one view that has been confirmed as being the "historical" view? And I think you were trying to link a book but it didn't seem to work.


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## davenporter (Jul 3, 2012)

Amazon.com: Recovering the Reformed Confession (9781596381100): R Scott Clark: Books


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## R. Scott Clark (Jul 3, 2012)

davenporter said:


> Amazon.com: Recovering the Reformed Confession (9781596381100): R Scott Clark: Books



Thanks Benjamin!

James,

I think there's a general consensus about early worship practices. We can piece together a fairly clear picture of early post-apostolic practice by looking at the Synagogic practice, The Didache, the Letter of Pliny the Younger to Trajan, and Justin's Apology. There are other sources, of course, but a fairly clear picture develops.


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## LeeD (Jul 3, 2012)

I also read this and found it helpful: Amazon.com: Introduction to Christian Worship (9780687091096): James F White: Books


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## SRoper (Jul 3, 2012)

R. Scott Clark said:


> davenporter said:
> 
> 
> > Amazon.com: Recovering the Reformed Confession (9781596381100): R Scott Clark: Books
> ...



Dr. Clark, isn't there some dispute as to whether the early church did any singing during worship? Did early liturgies mention singing at all?


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## Backwoods Presbyterian (Jul 3, 2012)

There is a great article on singing on Ref 21.

Singing in worship - Reformation21 Blog


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