DISSENTING PRAISE
Religious dissent & the hymn in England & Wales
Edited by Isabel Rivers & David L. Wykes. Oxford University Press. 320 pages. £65.00
ISBN 978 0 199 545 247
I spotted this title in the review columns of a national broadsheet and borrowed it from the British Library. I have loved hymns since my Sunday school days in south London. Having read it, I now have to ‘sell my shirt’ and get my own copy.
The book contains nine chapters drawing on the rich resources of Dr. Williams’s Library in London which holds treasures from the Puritan and Dissenting periods. I dare not embark on a detailed assessment, but, for space’s sake, just confine myself to an overview. It is my opinion that any of the following chapters would each be worth the money.