Throughout the centuries, some of the most creative musical geniuses have produced works to be performed as part of the life of the Christian church. The result is a great wealth of hymns, anthems, oratorios and other sacred music, from which organists and choirmasters throughout the world draw the hymns and other music for worship today. How has this magnificent tapestry developed? And where does the relatively small part of the pattern with which each Christian tradition is familiar fit into the tremendous variety of the whole? These are among the questions addressed by Andrew Wilson-Dickson in this absorbing account, as he takes the reader through each period of European musical history, as well as the Orthodox tradition, the growing African scene, and the many-sided American picture - North and South. 'A fascinating survey of the whole body of Christian music...scholarly yet readily intelligible to the non-specialist.' - Sir David Willcocks - former Principal of the Royal College of Music, London. 'An absorbing narrative, lucid and fluent, shot through with an infectious enthusiasm which makes for compulsive reading.' - Francis Jackson - former Organist and Choirmaster at York Minster