Hi, Genie! No, you're not wrong; Newton did indeed write "AG" late in life (1773). And I agree with you that a song does not need to be all-encompassing in its theme; better a bunch of short songs on various aspects of the theme than one excruciatingly long uberballad. I guess what I was trying to say is that I don't see the same kind of connection between "AG" and Newton's own conversion that Dean was trying to make (and that I find the two so mutually exclusive as to be very disturbing to me).

The 1748 conversion, from the summaries I've read (I have not yet read Newton's own 1764 account, but he was a minister by then so I'm guessing I'd have to read between the lines of some ministerial rhetoric), was made during a long storm at sea when he feared his slave ship would sink and he would die, and he cried out, "Lord have mercy upon us." He attributed his and the ship's survival to God's mercy rather than happenstance or his own skill, hence the conversion. So it sounds to me like he was trying to save his skin in that fearful moment, that isolated circumstance, but was not reflecting on his miserable past or his wretched condition or his reprehensible lifestyle or wanting to change any of that. The song, too, seems to be all about him and what God did for him and will do for him. I don't hear anything about what the saved soul is supposed to give back in terms of dedication or attempting to live righteously, and I would feel less angst if he had included something -- anything -- about that in the song to balance it out. In light of Newton's continued involvement in the slave trade post-conversion, the song seems to be about getting a free no-obligation pass to heaven. (Even the part about singing God's praise, which would at least be some form of giving back, was not written by Newton but by Harriet Beecher Stowe in Uncle Tom's Cabin.)

So, to me, the song does more than display the author's character flaw; to me it exhorts Christians to feel the same way about God's grace and ignore the "grace without works is dead" part. (Yes, I know Newton eventually got around to the "works" part, when it was no longer convenient for him to be a slaver.) I guess I don't see as much inherent "merit" in the song as most people do.