Susan Brown is well-acquainted with the clergy and divines of the seventeenth century who committed to writing, during times of political upheaval, religious controversy and cultural change, their rhetorically and biblically formed thought on the theory and practice of singing from the heart as a feature of the devotional life. Her concern is however, as the subtitle indicates, to explore the questions, both historical and practical, surrounding an aesthetic of the human voice as a musical instrument which was being enunciated then and which was as rich as any in prior western music, and to seek from such a study enlightenment for today. Having described the seventeenth-century three-fold English pattern of Italianate, ‘vulgar’ psalmodic and cathedral-cum-collegiate vocal practices, and the development of attention to the personalised voice and application of the Word in such styles as the spiritual lyric, the author draws from the seventeenth-century sources the evidence that the physical vehicle of the voice can express intimate concerns of the soul, and the interplay of will, memory, rationality and affections, and incorporate literally the body and its senses, while vocalising the praise of heaven. Brief conclusions mark out the relations between song and sincerity, feeling, empathy, community and the striving for transcendence. A sequel to this well-documented work would need to examine the extent to which such inspired leadership succeeded or failed in winning the followers to embrace such high principles, since that too would be instructive for today.