A lot of old hymns are not that great either.

Steve Holmes, a Baptist minister, presently employed to teach theology in St Mary’s College, St Andrews, Scotland, comments on John Stackhouse's post on Tomlin's songs by giving examples of bad hymnody in the past.

Holmes writes:

What of the claim of weak theology? John says ‘We are the most educated Christians in history, and yet our lyrics are considerably stupider than our much less educated Christian forebears…’ Well, for starters I’m not sure about this – once again, one would need to look at what they actually sang, not the classics that have come down to us. Victorian hymnody was full of sentimental claptrap with no discernable doctrinal content at all (check out ‘Blessed Assurance’ for the best of the genre, that has been judged good enough to survive).

Read the rest here. Holmes takes on charismatic worship here.