Poet and English Professor at Duke University, Reyonlds Price collaborated with the ever-captivating muscian James Taylor to write New Hymn.
The poem appears in Price’s collection of poetry The Use of Fire (1990) and was recorded by Taylor on his Live album (1993). Apparently it was written to honor the retirement of Taylor’s friend and controversial clergyman Bishop Paul Moore.
The last stanza is striking for me as a person interested in worldviews and Christian apologetics, because it artfully lists the three major worldview options available to us, namely, Naturalism, Pantheism, and Theism. Here is the lyric:
‘Til our few atoms blow to dust
Or form again in wiser lives
Or find your face and hear our name
In your calm voice the end of night
If dark may end
Wellspring goal of Dark and Day
Be here
Be now
“‘Til our few atoms blow to dust,” is the view of the Naturalist. Humans creatures on this view are nothing more than the sum of their atoms, and upon the end of life, these atoms simply blow to dust. Reynolds and Taylor seem to consider this as a possible option, and indeed, many others do today including aggressive atheist Richard Dawkins.
“Or form again in wiser lifes,” depicts the view of the Pantheist, who holds to reincarnation as the natural course of life until an individual is finally absorbed into Nirvana / Brahman. At which point, he will cease to be an individual altogether, and in many forms of Pantheism, was never an individual at all, since everything is essentially the same divine thing. Reynolds and Taylor seem to consider this also as a viable worldview option.
“Or find your face and hear our name,” is the view of the Theist who believes God is a personal being who knows us by name. He is real (contra Naturalism) and He is not the same as us (contra Pantheism). He speaks our name, and knows who we are, and cares about us. For Reynolds and Taylor, Theism also seems to be a viable option.
But even though for the authors of New Hymn, all three choices seem to be viable wait-and-see options (a sort of cautious agnosticism), the task of Christian apologetics has made it plain that the last option is most plausible, answers more questions, and provides meaning and purpose to life. The resurrection of Jesus (demonstrated by many historical evidences), along with the authenticity of the Old and New Testaments, gives us abundant reason to believe not simply in a loose Theism, as lightly promoted in the song, but rather to give our lives to the cause of glorifying Jesus Christ.
I admit, the artsy side of me gets teary-eyed hearing the song. It comes across with an element of hope on the one hand, since one of three options must apparently and logically be true. But it also comes across with a sense of despair, assuming that we simply cannot know which worldview is true. I would argue strongly that we can know, especially since the Savior has instructed us, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).