What Old Testament law was summarized as "love your neighbor as yourself"?

Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Dude Abides

Home
Progressive Christian

Last updated on: March 2, 2007 at 3:19 pm by Cathleen Falsani

2007-03-02T15:19:00-07:00 Cathleen Falsani

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

GODSTUFF:

WHAT’S SO AMAZING ABOUT GRACE?

“Amazing Grace” may be the most recorded song of all time.

Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Mahalia Jackson, The Byrds, Jose Carreras, Willie Nelson and Ani DiFranco. Billy Ray Cyrus, Joan Baez, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the U.S. Air Force Reserve Pipe Band and David Hasselhoff. Ram Dass, Pat Boone, Jim Nabors and The Lemonheads. All have offered their interpretations of the famous hymn.

In 1971, Judy Collins had a Top 10 hit with her version of “Amazing Grace.”

A high school student from New Orleans named Tiffany Ameen sang the hymn three times at George W. Bush’s inauguration, and Red Cross workers sang it at the site of the United Flight 93 crash Sept. 11, 2001, according to Steve Turner in his 2002 book Amazing Grace: The Story of America’s Most Beloved Song.

And during a U2 show in Portland, Ore., Bono sang an acapella version of “Amazing Grace” in honor of Joey Ramone the day the iconoclastic lead singer of The Ramones died in 2001.

“Amazing Grace” has been the musical salvo in times of great joy and unfathomable sorrow, here and around the world. Whether it’s a single voice, a mass choir, bagpipes or a jazz combo playing its tune or repeating its lyrics, “Amazing Grace” holds a universal appeal.

According to various sources, the 19th-century Protestant hymn has been recorded more than 1,100 times. There are 746 versions of “Amazing Grace” available on iTunes, and a search of Amazon.com’s music section turned up hits on 478 albums.

So, to borrow the words of the great contemporary Christian apologist Philip Yancey, What’s so amazing about “Amazing Grace”?

A new feature film that opened across the country last week answers the question by telling, in part, the story of the man who wrote the words of the hymn some time between 1760 and 1770.

His name was John Newton and before he was rector of London’s St. Mary Woolnoth Church, he was the captain of a slave ship.

When we first meet him in the film “Amazing Grace,” Newton (played by Albert Finney in a performance so masterful and moving, I’d be surprised if this time next year the 72-year-old actor weren’t trying to figure out where to put his shiny new gold statuette), is swabbing the floor of his church barefoot and wearing what looks like a hair shirt.

“Twenty-thousand slaves live with me in this little church — there’s still blood on my hands,” Newton tells William Wilberforce, the English abolitionist, in the film, which is largely a retelling of Wilberforce’s 20-year fight to eradicate slavery throughout the British Empire.

Newton, who experienced a dramatic conversion during a violent storm on his slave ship and, eventually, left the slave trade for seminary, is a man tormented by his sins even though he believes he’s been forgiven by a loving God.

Toward the end of the film, when Newton is feeble and going blind, he tells Wilberforce: “Although my memory is fading, I remember two things: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great savior.

“I wish I could remember all their names, my 20,000 ghosts. They all had names, beautiful African names. We called them with just grunts. Noises. We were apes. They were humans.”

This is the man who penned the words “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. . . . I once was blind, but now I see.”

Those familiar lyrics held an entirely different meaning and weight when I understood who wrote them.

Newton was not a pious man. Nor was he a saint, by any stretch of the imagination. I can think of few things more repugnant than being a master in the slave trade, a purveyor of human flesh in the most heinous of ways.

It’s hardly a surprise that, while he preached and believed in grace, according to the way his story is portrayed in the film, it took him nearly his entire life to accept it for himself. Newton struggled to believe that he was forgiven for his sins and that God, as he doubtlessly taught his flock on more than one occasion, removes our sins from us “as far as the east is from the west.”

Grace cannot be earned.

It is a gift, and not one that you receive when you purchase something, sign on the dotted line, or win the race.

I believe it was Yancey who once described grace this way: Justice is getting what you deserve; mercy is not getting what you deserve; and grace is getting what you absolutely don’t deserve.

It’s a concept that makes no sense to the human imagination. And even for the man who immortalized the idea of the amazement of grace in one of the world’s best-known songs, it almost was impossible to really, truly believe.

And yet . . .

Grace doesn’t depend on us believing in it or not to exist, to be real, to flood our lives, buoy our spirits or change the world.

And that is amazing.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

March 1, 2007

Next Post

March 3, 2007

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A little happy ARCHIVED COLUMNS BECOMING FAMILY BelieberNess BREAKING NEWS! Disquiet Time DJ JEFF'S SPINTASMS falsani FILM from OCRegister From Sojo.net God Nods GODSTUFF I Take Requests incubatespirit LURKING IN THE NARTHEX On My Nightstand ONEMOMS Polling the Room PONTIFEXCELLENT Thru My Eyes TWO CENTS Uncategorized Upcoming Events VASCO VASCO'S HEART

Select a Month January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 May 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 April 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 October 2003 March 2003 December 2002 October 2002 January 2001

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What Old Testament law was summarized as "love your neighbor as yourself"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Book of Leviticus only The whole law First five commandments Only 10th commandment