I like Keith Getty’s “In Christ Alone.” I think the PCUSA hymnal committee probably made the right call on the whole “wrath of God was satisfied” business, but still: it’s a good song for congregational use, accessible but with some theological meat.
It’s a little bizarre, however, to present “In Christ Alone” and Getty’s other songs as one side of a two-sided debate over church music, as NPR does here. Yes, “In Christ Alone” is not a praise chorus but a hymn, in the formal sense of a sacred strophic song. And it’s more substantive and less repetitive than a lot of praise choruses, which in my view doesn’t make it better but does provide some needed balance if praise choruses are the only other option.
Of course, they aren’t.