Brunstiges geistliches Verlangen: Erotik im "Geist-reichen Gesangbuch" des Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen' (Fervent spiritual desire: erotic in the "spirit-rich hymnbook" of Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen)

Abstract

I have always been interested in the development of hymns in the Lutheran and Reformed churches of the German-speaking countries and Scandinavia, as these were often the only kind of 'literature' ordinary people came in contact with. While Enlightenment authors in the first half of the 18th c. attacked the traditional orthodoxy of the official (state-supported) church, a need for hymns expressing the individual, emotional side of religion arose. The most successful and extensive collection of such hymns, which went through numerous editions, was the one by Freylin, I came across numerous hymns a modern churchgoer would find embarrassing because of their 'erotic' nature, and these were the ones I wrote my article about, pointing out that intimite, strong feeling had often first been expressed in a religious context (e.g., songs to the Virgin Mary before the medieval love lyric).