We Believe: Faith, Community, and the Holy Act of Singing

This presentation considers the complex issue of missional hymnody by focusing on the contents of the two official Brazilian Baptist hymnals, published one century apart: Cantor Cristão (first published in 1891) and Hinário para o Culto Cristão (1991). We will discuss three ethnomusicological concepts — “negotiation of proximity” and “the ethics of style” (Rommen, 2007) as well as “musical localization” (Ingalls et al., 2018)— in connection with this repertoire, and share our conclusions as to why these “foreign” songs have found such fertile soil in the hearts and minds of our fellow missionized Brazilian Baptist siblings. In addition, we hope to demonstrate how the singing of the hymns published in these two hymnals contributed to the cultural delineation and formation of a distinctive Brazilian Baptist identity. Singing included!