A comparative study of interpersonal meanings of traditional hymns and contemporary Christian songs in China

Contemporary Christian songs (CCSs) are gaining more favor in Chinese churches than traditional hymns (THs) nowadays; however, many scholars have criticized the intimate relationship established with God in CCSs from the perspective of theology. This study aims to explore whether the God-human relationship built in THs and CCSs has experienced a change by carrying out a comparative analysis of their respective constructed interpersonal meanings. Combining Halliday’s framework with judgment in Martin and White’s Appraisal system, this study compares 100 CCSs and THs from the aspects of modality, judgment, mood and projected roles with the help of UAM Corpus Tool 3.0., with some changes of the original categories of judgment system due to the specific nature of the judged subject in the data. The semantic analyses show that the God-human relationship constructed in hymns has changed, with the encompassing view of God narrowed to one focused on love, the sinful nature of humans replaced by their incapability, and the assurance in and reverence to God outweighed by closeness and intimacy with Him. Some cultural realities and the situation of the church are referred to as a way of explaining this change.