The Christian Science Hymnal:
History, Heritage, Healing
By Robert J. Rockabrand
in collaboration with Sara Rockabrand
Contents:
New chapters are published monthly, exclusively online.
For updates, sign up for our newsletter.
AVAILABLE NOW
Chapter 1
The evolution of Christian Science hymnody before 1892
Chapter 2
The Chicago hymnals and the 1892 Hymnal
NEXT UP
Chapter 3
The Hymnal takes hold, 1892
COMING
Chapter 4
The work of Lyman Brackett
Chapter 5
The 1898 revision and the 1910 Hymnal
Chapter 6
The 1932 Hymnal
Chapter 7
The evolution of several significant hymns
Chapter 8
The 1980s Hymnal revision project
Chapter 9
The 2008 Hymnal Supplement
Chapter 10
The 2017 Hymnal
Chapter 11
Mary Baker Eddy’s poems, Part 1
Chapter 12
Mary Baker Eddy’s poems, Part 2
About the author
Dr. Robert J. “Rocky” Rockabrand (1931–2020) earned degrees from Stanford University in California (DMA), Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey (BMus, MM), and Principia College in Elsah, Illinois (BA). He taught for several years at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, before launching a decades-long career at Principia. Dr. Rockabrand taught and composed choral music and conducted choirs for undergraduate and continuing education students. He loved sacred music, especially hymnody. With his wife, Sara Rockabrand, he researched and wrote on music in the Christian Science faith—especially its hymnals. The Christian Science Hymnal: History, Heritage, Healing distills what the Rockabrands explored and shared through numerous lectures and presentations.
About the project
Hymns have animated Christian Science church services ever since their beginnings in the nineteenth century. These sacred songs also touch the day-to-day lives of adults and children alike, inspiring, comforting, and healing. People sing, hum, read, remember, and pray with hymns. They may well up unexpectedly in us when joy promises or fear threatens.
But where did these hymns come from? Who wrote the words? The music? When did Christian Scientists first make hymnals, and how did they do it? Why did they select the tunes they did? Mary Baker Eddy loved hymns, and we know she sang them in a sweet soprano voice. Throughout her life—and certainly as the discoverer and founder of Christian Science—she found inspiration in these anthems. And she wanted her church to sing!
This series tells about some of those hymns and hymnals, composers and compilers. It includes audio of selected songs, historic photos, and links to testimonies of healing from the Christian Science magazines, offering firsthand accounts of how sacred songs impact the lives of those who sing them. Based on years of research and heartfelt commitment, The Christian Science Hymnal: History, Heritage, Healing reflects the love of its authors for God’s power and grace—reflected in song.
—The Mary Baker Eddy Library