Be Thou My Vision



Essentially this captures what I'm trying to do here. Atheists can sing this hymn with just as much feeling, meaning and emotion as theists. Do add your favourite hymns to the comments; if you have links to any recordings you like, please share them, and maybe let us know a little about how you might interpret it in a non-theistic way. Or perhaps you just appreciate beautiful music and poetry...
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous2 September 2010 at 15:47

    Shane,

    Beautiful. Thankyou for posting this.

    And I'll get back to you tomorrow about... well, you know!!!


    Peter

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  2. Anonymous3 September 2010 at 10:58

    Shane

    Let's run with the 'meaning' bit... you have a reasonable idea what I might mean when I sing this, but what does, just as much meaning as theists, mean for you?

    Peter

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  3. Shane3 September 2010 at 13:47

    Hi Peter, well, you might regard the "meaning" bit as a work in progress. This is one of my favourite hymns - perhaps my absolute favourite. The lilting Irish melody (massacred by the Irish tenors - you can get than on Youtube too, and it's as close to blasphemy as you can get - all trumpets and organs and pizzazz) coupled with some brilliantly crafted words that I am told sound so much better as Gaelige, but they're lovely in English too.

    Now, as far as "meaning" is concerned, the atheist can suspend rationality and pretend the song is sung to a deity, or can imagine it being sung to the universe itself, the planet, a sunrise - many things. To me, this hymn evokes a powerful emotional response, although like many Christians I recognise the fact that there is not in fact any god.

    But how do you suppose a hypothetical deity might feel when "hearing" this sung?

    [BTW, thanks for your comments here - I hope other readers are prompted to take on some of the issues you raise]

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  4. Sarah4 September 2010 at 03:06

    I am a former believer and now an agnostic-atheist Unitarian, and a lot of these hymns are nostalgic for me but I admit I struggle with how to reframe them as meaningful for me now. I like the idea of addressing reverence to the universe, or life, and even using God as a metaphor for that, but there are often too many authoritarian connotations (like the word "Lord" for example). It's nice to know others can be comfortable with such hymns though.

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Please leave a comment - not rude or off-topic. I have allowed anonymous postings for now, but if it gets a bit mad, I might need to change that. I reserve the right to delete comments if the thread is getting a wee bit out of hand - sorry for that. However, ideas welcome!

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