Not the Words: Hymnody,Enacted Theology,and the Lutheran Inupiat |
| |
| Authors: | Kristin Helweg Hanson |
| |
| Affiliation: | Kristin Helweg Hanson is adjunct professor of religion and philosophy at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Since 1999, she has been privileged to learn from Lutheran Inupiat in Anchorage and on the Seward Peninsula of Alaska. |
| |
| Abstract: | Abstract : The theology of hymnody is not text‐bound. This article asserts that for the Lutheran Inupiat of Anchorage (Alaska), the practice of singing enacts the important theology. The Lutheran Inupiat still use the missionary hymns of the 1880s—early 1900s. This article explores how singing hymns simultaneously perpetuates Inupiaq spiritual culture and participates in the adopted Lutheran heritage. Inupiaq naming‐practices and song‐genealogies enrich Christian understandings of the ‘communion of saints’, which is enacted through singing. |
| |
| Keywords: | Inupiat singing naming‐practices communion of saints hymns Alaska Native |
|
|
