The Amazing History of “Amazing Grace”

Markus Rathey, the Robert S. Tangeman Professor of Musicology and Theory, has contributed new scholarship to a major forthcoming volume on one of the most enduring hymns in the English-speaking world. Amazing Grace at 250: Global Heritage and Contested Legacies (edited by M. V. Clarke and G. Atkins, Routledge 2026) brings together leading voices to reassess the global history and theological significance of Amazing Grace, a hymn that appears in nearly every major denomination’s hymnal and remains central to worship and public ritual alike.

Arguably one of the most beloved hymns in the English-speaking world, Amazing Grace is commonly sung not just at funerals, but in Sunday morning services in churches all over the world. The history of the hymn has been explored extensively, but there’s always more to uncover.

The new book delves into the hymn’s multifaceted history and offers fresh insights into its origins and its impact. Rathey’s essay focuses on the hymn’s roots in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century devotion. During his research, he discovered that many of the prevailing stories about the hymn are incomplete and, in some cases, misleading.

Often, the hymn is viewed through the lens of its author, John Newton (1725-1807). Newton’s life story is compelling—he was a former sailor and slave trader who experienced a profound religious conversion and became a Church of England priest. Newton wrote numerous hymns and became an ardent supporter of the abolition of slavery. It’s easy to see Newton’s own story reflected in the hymn’s lyrics, particularly in the line that praises God’s grace for saving “a wretch like me.”

However, focusing solely on Newton’s biography misses out on the hymn’s deeper theological significance and its rich connections to the theology of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Rathey points out that the hymn’s famous opening phrase, which focuses on salvation, may have been inspired by the influential seventeenth-century theologian John Bunyan (1628-1688). Bunyan was the first to describe God’s salvation as “amazing grace.” In his 1675 treatise, Saved by Grace, he wrote: “O Grace! O amazing Grace.” Bunyan’s influence on “Amazing Grace” doesn’t stop there. He also inspired the hymn’s description of salvation as a “sweet sound.” Bunyan contrasted the terrifying sounds of hell with the sweet sounds of God’s grace.

These themes spread through many hymns of the era before Newton penned Amazing Grace. For instance, the idea of salvation as a sweet sound appears in hymns by Thomas Gibbons (1720-1785) and Philip Doddridge (1702-1751). Isaac Watts (1674-1748) wrote a stanza that feels like it could be an additional verse of Amazing Grace: “Amazing grace, that kept my breath, nor bid my soul remove, Till I have learn’d my Saviour’s death, and well insur’d his love.” The title of Watts’s hymn, The Death of a Sinner, shows that he, like Bunyan, used the phrase to describe God’s “amazing” salvation.

Newton was well-acquainted with Watts’s hymns and read Bunyan’s works voraciously. In fact, he published a new edition of Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress in 1776, just four years after writing Amazing Grace.

While the hymn undeniably reflects aspects of Newton’s life, it offers much more. Placing it within the context of seventeenth and eighteenth-century theology reveals its profound depth—a richness that a purely biographical reading can overlook. As Rathey concludes in his essay: “Newton stands on the shoulders of giants… it is its rich and profound theological resonance with devotional texts and hymns (both of which have significantly shaped spirituality in the English-speaking world) that has contributed to its enduring popularity.”

Learn more and purchase Amazing Grace at 250: Global Heritage and Contested Legacies.

Read more about Markus Rathey.