Luther's First Hymn...

Thanks to Chaplain Mike from the Internet Monk for a good post on Luther's hymn writing and spotlighting his first hymn, Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice.  I am appreciating the hymns we sing in the Lutheran service. Compared to the 7/11 type song (7 words repeated 11 times) and how it gets so monotonous, the hymns in the Lutheran Service Book that we sing are so rich and beautiful and seem to carry much more weight.



 
The first commenter from the Internet Monk blog asked a good question that I want to do some research on:

Question: Did Luther compose his hymns with the goal of

a) having them be broadly acceptable all churchgoers,

b) pushing his own theological agenda, or

c) same as b, but unconsciously?

He also asks:

I also wonder about the transition between this style of hymnody, and the Catholic liturgy which it replaced. Some PBS special explained that his songs were actually sung more as political anthems (or football club songs?), with a much faster tempo and more enthusiastic elocution than is customary for churches today.

If anyone has any information regarding this, please feel free to post any comments.