Discourse Strategies and Their Linguistic Realisation in James Black's "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder" and Robert Lowry's "Shall We Gather at the River"

Abstract

Using Van Dijk's Critical Discourse Analysis alongside Systemic Functional Grammar, this qualitative study investigates how two well-known resurrection hymns deploy discourse strategies — visualisation, personalisation, structural inversion, modality, lexical authority and repetition — to construct eschatological meaning and position believers. Findings show these strategies, realised through specific linguistic devices, are central to the hymns' communicative and theological power.