To Heaven's Rim

Book excerpt: From its very first days, the church has been lifting up its songs and poems from the earth to the heavens, whether in praise, thanksgiving, or lament. Join poets from across Syria, Europe, Armenia, Ethiopia, China, and the Philippines in raising their voices. Learn about these great Christian singers from around the world, many of whom are hardly known at all among English readers, yet who are often considered the greatest poets in their own languages. Explore the many styles and genres which Christians have used to express their faith in song, whether hymn, psalm, dream vision, epic, drama, lyric, or didactic poem. Journey through the lives of biblical characters, through abstract theological and philosophical arguments, through moments of intense personal grief and joy, through the lives of saints and terrible sinners, sometimes even through heaven and hell themselves.