Erik Reginald Routley ( ; 31 October 1917, Brighton, UK – 8 October 1982, Nashville TN) was an English Congregational churchman, theologian and musician and arguably the most significant hymnologist of the 20th century. His nearly 40 books on theological thought and music of the Christian church are renowned. Raised in Brighton in a Congregational family, he spent his formative years at Lancing College in West Sussex. In 1936 he received an exhibition to Magdalen College, Oxford and afterward ministerial training at Mansfield College, Oxford. Ordained in 1943, Routley held pastorates in Wednesbury and Dartford before returning to Mansfield in 1948 as Chaplain, Lecturer, Librarian and Director of Music. In 1953, he was named to the Mackennal Chair of History. It was during these years that he became visible as an historian and hymn expert. He was also Chaplain of the Oxford Congregationalist Society and left a significant positive imprint on those he worked with. He joined the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland in 1943 and became Editor of the Bulletin, their quarterly newsletter, for 27 years. He also wrote regularly for The British Weekly and the Congregational Monthly. His Oxford DPhil thesis (1951), The Church and Music: An enquiry into the history, the nature and scope of Christian judgement on music became the source for much of his writing for the rest of his life. In 1945, Routley was placed on the committee for producing a new hymnal, Congregational Praise and eventually wrote its musical companion. The hymnal was launched in 1951 and was the first of over 15 hymnals and supplements that he either edited, co-edited, or consulted over the next thirty years. His first book, I'll Praise My Maker(1951) was quickly followed by Hymns and Human Life, and Hymns and the Faith. These became classics almost immediately amongst clergy and church musicians. Because of this, he was in strong demand as a lecturer at universities, seminaries, and music societies in the US and Great Britain. In 1959, Routley returned to congregational ministry in Edinburgh at Augustine-Bristo Congregational Church, where he remained until 1967. While in Scotland, he and Ian Fraser(2017-2018) organized the Dunblane Music Consultations out of which sprung the seminal methods and possibilities for structuring hymnody in the US and UK until the present. In 1965, Routley was named a Fellow of The Royal School of Church Music, the first non-Anglican to receive this