Remembered Music

A Hymnal: The Controversial Arts By William F. Buckley Jr. Putnam, 511 pp., $12.95 A hymnal? It is an odd title at first glance. Hymnody is usually praise, and Mr. Buckley, being a rational and observant man, rations his praise. I admit, moreover, that I ended up feeling about this book quite as I do about the hymnal we sing from at church: awe for the best of the old remembered music, mingled with wonder that a few entries were admitted to the canon.

But the amiable and distinguished editor of this journal never falls to the bathos of, let us say, “O for a closer walk with God.” Let us merely say that there are risks in so prodigious an output of polemics as Mr. Buckley undertakes week upon week; and a few of the risks loom larger in retrospect.

EY

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Edwin M. Yoder Jr.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

A Hymnal: The Controversial Arts By William F. Buckley Jr. Putnam, 511 pp., $12.95 A hymnal? It is an odd title at first glance. Hymnody is usually praise, and Mr. Buckley, being a rational and observant man, rations his praise. I admit, moreover, that I ended up feeling about this book quite as I do about the hymnal we sing from at church: awe for the best of the old remembered music, mingled with wonder that a few entries were admitted to the canon.

But the amiable and distinguished editor of this journal never falls to the bathos of, let us say, “O for a closer walk with God.” Let us merely say that there are risks in so prodigious an output of polemics as Mr. Buckley undertakes week upon week; and a few of the risks loom larger in retrospect.