As we look at another New Year’s Day, it’s a good time to reflect on a song that unites rather than divides us: the Rev. John Newton’s hymn “Amazing Grace.” The hymn first appeared in Newton’s New ...

Ramy Inocencio is a CBS News foreign correspondent based in London, covering Europe and the Middle East. He joined the Network in 2019 as CBS News' Asia correspondent, based in Beijing and reporting ...

Saltmine is a Christian theatre company. Its latest touring production is of a new play scripted by Richard Hasnip based on the life of the late 18th century sailor, poet and clergyman John Newton.

You know those songs that you just kind of know? You sing along without even thinking about the lyrics. Well, we're going to explore the history of one of these songs today. It's heard around the ...

Many people think they know the story of the hymn,"Amazing Grace." The commonly accepted narrative presents its composer, John Newton, a young English captain of a late 18th-century slave ship, as a ...

2023 is the 250th anniversary year of "Amazing Grace." It was first performed on New Year's Day, 1773, and has gone through many changes over the years. You know those songs that you just kind of know ...

(RNS) — James Walvin, a former Church of England choirboy and professor of history at the University of York, doesn’t remember encountering “Amazing Grace,” in song or in his hymnal. It wasn’t until ...

Amazing Grace. By James Walvin. University of California Press; 216 pages; $19.95 and £16.99 A short but fascinating book by James Walvin, a professor at the University of York and an expert on ...

The hymn is a personal reflection on his life, from his past as a slave trader to his redemption and spiritual journey, emphasising themes of a lost soul found and saved. He wrote it to help his ...

It may seem odd for a historian of slavery to write a history of a popular hymn. In fact, the link between “Amazing Grace” and slavery is clear and fairly obvious: the author of “Amazing Grace,” John ...

Why John Newton’s famous hymn is still so powerful after so long. In 2016, Coldplay began the encore of a headlining set at Glastonbury Festival with a sample of “Amazing Grace” sung by Barack Obama ...