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- Herausgeber: DigiCat
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Sprache: Englisch
In "The Use and Abuse of Church Bells; With Practical Suggestions Concerning Them," Walter Blunt presents an insightful exploration of the historical, cultural, and auditory significance of church bells within ecclesiastical contexts. Blunt employs a mixture of erudite prose and accessible narrative, engaging with both the aesthetic and practical dimensions of church bells, from their traditional use in signaling services to their role in community gatherings. Through a critical lens, he examines the potential abuses of this age-old practice, offering readers a nuanced understanding of how these resonant instruments have both enriched and complicated communal lives throughout history. Walter Blunt, a noted scholar of ecclesiastical history and sociocultural practices surrounding religious institutions, draws upon his extensive background in theology and acoustics to deliver this work. His lifelong fascination with the ceremonial aspects of church life, paired with a penchant for reform, informs his pragmatic suggestions for modernizing the use of bells while preserving their historical essence. Blunt's commitment to thoughtful worship practices reflects his desire to foster authentic community engagement through sound. This book is a compelling read for anyone interested in the intersection of history, culture, and sound. Blunt's adept treatment of a seemingly specialized topic makes it accessible to general readers and scholars alike, inviting further discussion about the role of tradition in contemporary worship. A perfect choice for students of theology, auditory culture, or anyone curious about the harmonious blend of past and present.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022
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The Use and Abuse of Church Bells; With Practical Suggestions Concerning Them
Table of Contents
It has fallen to the writer’s lot, in the Divine dispensation, to be entrusted with the care, or joint care, of very many parishes in various parts of England: and he knows not any one external matter, common to them all, and to the neighbourhoods surrounding them, which has caused him more pain than the ordinary use, and the almost utter neglect for their own proper purposes, of the Church Bells.
Indeed, so much is the proper use of these holy instruments of edification (for such they really are) generally lost sight of, that among all the New Churches which have been builded during the last few years, scarcely any have more than one Bell; a greater number being considered a vain superfluity, a kind of ecclesiastical luxury—or, by deeper thinkers, a link between the Church and the world (and that often in its fiercest contentions, vainest hours, and most carnal aspect) which we may well be rid of.
In our older Churches, the position of the Belfry (on the floor of the Church, immediately communicating with the Nave, generally laid entirely open to it, often, too, having no other entrance, and not unfrequently forming the passage between the Nave and Chancel) is sufficient to point out to every thinking person in the parish the very sacred character which was attached to their Bells when they were first hung, the holy purposes to which they were dedicated—and how solemn a matter, how truly a service of Almighty God, the Ringing of them was then esteemed.
In other Churches, almost always of a later date, we find the original position of the Ringers at a higher level, upon a floor in the Tower. But the Belfry was still laid open, by an arch, to the body of the Church—thus yielding evidence that the Ringing of the Bells was still esteemed a very sacred thing.
In many Churches of more recent foundation, but chiefly in such as have been builded within the last 200 years, we meet with a sad evidence of a decay of this feeling, or rather principle; in that the Belfry is placed high up in the Tower, and quite shut out from the body of the Church:—until, at last, it has come to pass (and this, too, is the case in some Churches, of 150 years old) that the Belfry is most frequently entirely omitted; and Churches of considerable size and pretensions are erected with only a single Call-Bell.
But while this result has been coming to pass—(and it has been not a little hastened by mercenary hearts and sacrilegious hands, in the robbery of many of our older Churches of their Bells) another change has gradually been taking place of a still more mischievous character. In various records which have come down to us, bearing date about the times of the Reformation, reference is often made to, and sufficient evidence is given of, the superstitious usage of Church Bells: and there is, too, room for but little doubt that they, as well as the Church itself, were in those later ages frequently applied to profane purposes.
Again, the Rules and doggrel verses (generally from one to two hundred years old) which remain in many of our Belfries, while they often show that the Bells were still used for holy purposes, and according to their original design, afford alas! a melancholy evidence that the Ringing of them was no longer esteemed a sacred service.
