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 ...

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 Ne ...

(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.