![]() ![]() There are other hymns for Holy Week that cover many of the same biblical and theological themes, indeed, more eloquently. The expected conclusion of each stanza would seem most naturally to be one of the classic Christian responses of the church throughout the ages: “Kyrie eleison” (Lord, have mercy”) or “Agnus Dei qui tolis peccata mundi, miserere nobis” (Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us).īliss’s response is indeed a surprise and another paradox: “Hallelujah! What a Savior!” This brief refrain-the final line of each four-line stanza-is the unique feature of this hymn. Philip Bliss (1838-1876) employs the rhetorical device of paradox in each stanza, detailing an aspect of Christ’s sacrifice on behalf of humanity. The paradox that Christ’s ministry among the economically disadvantaged, the socially disenfranchised, and culturally marginalized was such a threat to the halls of power that God would humiliate God’s self on one of the cruelest instruments of human torture ever devised. Christianity is, among many things, a faith of paradox-the paradox of the Incarnation that the God of the universe would take on human form in a powerless and impoverished family in a politically occupied country.
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