优秀的诗歌与崇拜战争 THE WORSHIP WARS
现代宗教改革（Modern Reformation）杂志，总18第6期，2009，9/10月号。
作者：Donald T.
William 译者：诚之
牧师应该如何面对所谓的“崇拜战争”呢？首先需要知道的是，问题不是出在音乐的新旧，而是音乐的好坏。在评估当代的崇拜音乐时，我们必须知道，教会历史中遗留下来的“好”诗歌，具有哪些特征，使他们能脱颖而出，成为崇拜音乐中的瑰宝。好的诗歌需要通过下列几个标准的检验：圣经真理，神学深度，诗意盎然，曲调优美，以及词曲的配合。任何时代的诗歌如果能通过这些考验，就能受神的子民喜爱而历久不衰。这些标准不是随意与武断的，而是在考虑圣经对崇拜本质的教导，以及对音乐本质的认识后，所得出的总结。How should we
approach the “Worship Wars” as writers who are also pastors, ministers of
music, and lay persons? We must first
realize that the question is not whether music is old or new but whether it is
good. We cannot discern the best contemporary
worship music without knowing those marks of excellence that made the best of
the past stand out. Biblical truth,
theological profundity, poetic richness, musical beauty, and the fitting of
music to text in ways that enhance rather than distort meaning, are the marks
of excellence in any age. They are not
arbitrary, but derived from biblical teaching about the nature of worship and
an understanding of the nature of music.
一、圣经真理 （Biblical Truth）
新教徒的赞美诗一向坚持要合乎圣经真理。最早期宗教改革时期教会所唱的诗歌，都是对圣经经文的改写。18世纪前，许多作家，例如瓦兹，Cowper, Newton, 卫斯理等，不再受改写圣经经文的限制，开始自由地创作赞美诗的歌词。但是他们仍然对歌词要合乎圣经真理有很重的负担。这时期的诗歌通常会附上圣经经文，确定歌词有圣经的根据。Protestant hymnody
has always insisted on Biblical Truth.
The earliest congregational songs for Reformation churches were
paraphrased Scripture texts. The
metrical Psalms of Sternhold and Hopkins (1549) was the most popular book in
Elizabethan England. By the Eighteenth
Century, writers like Watts, Cowper, Newton, and the Wesleys felt free to
compose words of praise that were not strict paraphrases of Scripture. But they still felt obligated to ensure that
their words were Scriptural. Often hymns
were printed with the biblical references that justified their content appended
to every verse.
“诗歌本是教会的另一本圣经”，教会的诗歌本，常唱的诗歌，会在无形中塑造会众的神学思想。教会中的平信徒如果长期在合乎圣经真理的诗歌的熏陶下，也会写出具有深邃神学洞见的诗歌。（诚之按）
二、神学深度 (Theological
Profundity)
教会历史上最好的诗歌，通常都反映了深刻的神学洞见。我们是凭信心，靠着道成肉身、赐下救恩给我们的中保基督，来赞美我们荣耀、超越的上帝。最好的歌词不仅提升我们的敬拜，也帮助我们以合乎圣经的方式，来诠释我们自己的宗教经验。如此我们颂赞“永生神是灵，智慧无限量 / 真光明真奇妙，隐藏的真神”（Immortal, Invisible, God only Wise / In Light
inaccessible hid from our eyes）。我们一同“赞美我主全能君王，显出造物奇功”（Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the king of Creation）。又还有哪一首诗歌比卫斯理的《但求如愿》（And
Can if Be That I Should Gain）更能表达我们得救的经历呢？Theological Profundity also marks the best of past
hymnody. Even simple folk praised a
majestically transcendent God with a graciously incarnated Son who saved them
by grace through faith. The best texts
not only lifted them up in worship but also helped them interpret their own
religious experiences in biblically sound ways.
So we sing to One who is “Immortal, invisible, God only wise, / In light
inaccessible hid from our eyes.” We give
our “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation.” Has anyone ever applied the specifics of the
atonement to the experience of conversion better than Charles Wesley in “And
Can it Be?”
三、诗意盎然 （Poetic Richness）
我们必须谨慎地追求诗情的丰富，因为典故太多只会让一般人感到迷惑，不但不能丰富我们的敬拜，反而成为阻拦。然而，适当要求歌词的优美，还是应该的。例如，我们用《是何婴孩》（What Child is This, Who Laid to Rest）来捕捉道成肉身的奇妙；用适当的军事比喻来描写属灵争战，如《上主是我坚固保障》（A Mighty Fortress is our God）；或选择简单却发人深省的字眼，例如《奇异恩典》（Amazing Grace）中的“wretch”（卑鄙小人）。对歌词稍加修饰，更引发人思想，或更带动人的情感，也经常会通过时代考验，出现在诗歌中。而一些押韵的诗歌，更容易使人上口。Poetic Richness is a virtue that must be pursued
carefully, because a text that is too allusive can be confusing for average
people and thus hinder rather than enrich worship. Nevertheless, appropriate kinds of literary
excellence have a role. Examples include
gems like the use of the questions in “What Child is this?” to capture the
wonder of the incarnation, the appropriate military metaphors in that great
meditation on spiritual warfare, “A Mighty Fortress,” or the choice of a
simple, evocative word like “wretch” in “Amazing Grace.” Little touches that make a text more
intellectually suggestive or emotionally powerful without making it
unnecessarily difficult will show up in hymns that survive the test of time,
while texts that are just rhymed prose with tunes attached are more
forgettable.
四、曲调优美（Musical beauty）
在某种程度上，曲调是否优美取决于听众的耳朵。然而，一首曲调的轮廓，结构，节奏，以及和弦，会决定其旋律是否容易记忆，甚至让人縈繞於心。想想《成为我异象》（Be Thou My Vision）的旋律如何像海洋的波浪般起起伏伏；《耶稣大爱深不可测》（Oh the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus）ABA 的曲式，《大哉圣哉》（All Hail the
Power的“复杂”版本Diadem）中，第三部的男声打断女声的旋律，或者《圣哉、圣哉、圣哉》中，第三节的内声部逆势对抗静止的旋律。Musical Beauty
might be thought to be in the ear of the hearer. To a certain extent, it is. Nevertheless, there are contours, structures,
and cadences that make for a sing-able melody and harmonic felicities that can
make that melody more memorable or even haunting. Think of how Slane (“Be Thou my Vision”)
rises and falls like an ocean wave, the gently rolling ABA structure of
Ebenezer (“Oh the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus”), the men’s voices in Diadem (the
“complicated” version of “All Hail the Power”) punctuating the flowing women’s
line in the chorus, or the inner parts moving against the still melody in the
third measure of Nicaea (“Holy, Holy, Holy”).
五、词曲的配合（Fitting of Music to
Text）
一首伟大的诗歌，必须有词、曲的互相搭配；光是词本身好，曲本身也好，并不能保证成就一首好的诗歌。违反这个原则最坏的一个例子，大概要数宣信（A.B. Simpson）牧师的《一个宣教士的呼求》（A Missionary Cry）莫属了。这首诗的歌词本来应该用小调和葬礼的节奏，但是却配了非常不搭调的进行曲曲调。词曲完美配合的极佳例子，如：（Let All Moral Flesh Keep Silence）， Of Father’s Love Begotten，Oh Could I Speak the
Matchless Worth。（译按，上面三首曲子华人教会都不熟悉。）A good Fit between the Words and their Musical Setting
is essential to great worship music even when text and tune are both excellent
in themselves. The most egregious violation of
this principle may be A. B. Simpson’s
“A Missionary Cry”: “A hundred thousand souls a
day / Are marching one by one away. / They’re passing to their doom.” If ever there was content demanding a minor
key and a dirge-like tempo . . . but this song is set to a completely
inappropriate snappy march tune! Examples of good fit are the meditative,
plainsong-derived melodies of Picardy in the contemplative “Let all Mortal
Flesh Keep Silence” and Divinum Mysterium in “Of the Father’s Love Begotten” or
the sprightly, joyous rhythms of Ariel in “Oh Could I Speak the Matchless
Worth.”
圣经真理，神学深度，充满诗情，曲调优美，和词曲配合不是风格的问题。它们是所有时代中，优秀崇拜诗歌的特征，熟悉圣经和教会音乐历史的学者，都会得出这些标准。只有受过古典和历史训练（以及圣经与神学训练）的音乐家，能平衡地引导教会，正确判断哪些当代最新的诗歌是合适的，可以作为教会丰富传统的补充。CONCLUSION: Biblical truth, theological profundity,
poetic richness, musical beauty, and appropriate fitness are not matters of
style. They are the marks of excellence
for worship music in any age, but only knowledge of musical history can tell us
this. Only musicians who are classically
and historically (as well as biblically and theologically) trained are poised
to guide the church in judicious appropriation of the best new music as a
supplement to her rich musical heritage.
And only writers who are so trained are poised to provide the texts to
that music.
诗歌集中每首音乐刚被创作出来时，都属于“现代音乐”。有些作者遗留下来的比较多，因为他们的作品表现了圣经真理，显出神学的深度，富含诗意，曲调优美，词曲也有良好的配合。今天的教会仍然应该坚持唱他们的作品，因为它们有内在的优点，也因为唯有我们熟悉这些优点，才能帮助我们分辨，也推广今日所写的最好的“新歌”。Every hymn in the
hymnbook was contemporary when it was written.
Some of their authors crop up more often than others because their work
manifested truth, profundity, richness, beauty, and fitness more powerfully and
reliably. The church should still cling
to their work, both for its intrinsic merit and because only an informed
familiarity with that merit can help us discern and propagate the best “new
songs” being written today.
Donald T. Williams
Professor
of English and Director of the School of Arts and Sciences at Toccoa Falls
College in the hills of NE Georgia. His most recent books are Mere Humanity: G.
G. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Tolkien on the Human Condition
(Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2006) and Credo: Meditations on the Nicene
Creed (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2007). His website is http://doulomen.tripod.com/dtw.htm
译后感言：华人音乐家何时能根据神给我们的诗歌（诗篇），用中国人的曲调创作上好的诗歌，供神的子民吟唱呢？诗篇中有许多的“宣召”诗，“感恩诗”，“悔改诗”，“感谢诗”，“赞美诗”，分别适合崇拜中的一些活动，如果我们在崇拜中都能用神给我们的诗歌来唱，一定更能塑造神的子民，对神有更正确的认识。