Singing the Gospel: Lutheran Hymns and the Success of the Reformation

Singing the Gospel offers a new appraisal of the Reformation and its popular appeal, based on the place of German hymns in the sixteenth-century press and in the lives of early Lutherans. The Bohemian mining town of Joachimsthal—where pastors, musicians, and laity forged an enduring and influential union of Lutheranism, music, and culture—is at the center of the story.

The Lutheran hymns, sung in the streets and homes as well as in the churches and schools of Joachimsthal, were central instr...