THE CHURCH HYMN “CHRIST RECEIVETH SINFUL MEN”: ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE GERMAN ORIGINAL AND ITS ADAPTATION BY AMERICAN AND KOREAN HYMNALS

Abstract

In the 19th century, German Protestant hymns were translated into English and have been sung in its language area. By evangelizing Korea, Western – including some German – church hymns were introduced. However, it is noticeable that content as well as linguistic and musical differences between the German and Korean versions could occur in the translation process. This paper examines one particular church hymn, namely “Christ Receiveth Sinful Men”, that was included in the Korean hymnals at the end of the 19th century. This church hymn has an interesting history; its text is originally from Germany, whereby the origin of the music is the United States. This paper explores the questions of how the text and the music were combined and how changes took place in their transmission. Methodologically, sources were compared that were relevant at the time of adaption. The intercultural relationships between the hymns of other countries would be of interest not only to hymnological scholars, but also to missiologists and musicologists, as well as church musicians.