Theology, Music and Time (Cambridge Studies in Christian Doctrine)

by Jeremy S. Begbie

Publisher:

Cambridge University Press

, 2000

Overview

Theology, Music and Time aims to show how music can enrich and advance theology, extending our wisdom about God and God’s ways with the world. Instead of asking: what can theology do for music?, it asks: what can music do for theology? Jeremy Begbie argues that music’s engagement with time gives the theologian invaluable resources for understanding how it is that God enables us to live ‘peaceably’ with time as a dimension of the created world. Without assuming any specialist knowledge of music, he explores a wide range of musical phenomena - rhythm, metre, resolution, repetition, improvisation - and through them opens up some of the central themes of the Christian faith - creation, salvation, eschatology, time and eternity, Eucharist, election and ecclesiology. He shows that music can not only refresh theology with new models, but also release it from damaging habits of thought which have hampered its work in the past.

Key Features

• Aims to show how music can enrich and advance theology.
• Explores a wide range of musical phenomena.
• Shows that music can release theology from damaging habits of thought.

Contents

• List of musical examples
• List of figures
• Acknowledgements
• Part I Introduction
• 1 Practising music
• 2 Music’s time
• Part II In God’s good time
• 3 In God’s good time
• 4 Resolution and salvation
• 5 Music, time and eternity
• 6 Repetition and Eucharist
• Part III Time to improvise
• 7 Boulez, Cage and freedom
• 8 Liberating constraint
• 9 Giving and giving back
• 10 Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index of names
• Index of biblical verses
• General index

Praise for Theology, Music, and Time

It would be difficult to overpraise this book … it breaks new ground, it is both insightful and highly informed and it is written in a style devoid of the obscurity that often mars musicological reflection.

Gordon Graham, Scottish Journal of Theology

A book that is wide-ranging, stimulating and full of insight.

Musical Times

… a delightful exploration of the relevance of music for a variety of theological themes … Begbie has written an excellent book, illuminating both of music and theology. It offers a great deal of stimulation for others to explore a relatively little developed field.

Stephen Carr,Theology

Product Details

• Title: Theology, Music and Time
• Author: Jeremy S. Begbie
• Series: Cambridge Studies in Christian Doctrine
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Print Publication Date: 2000
• Logos Release Date: 2025
• Pages: 317
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Music › Religious aspects; Theology
• ISBNs: 0521785685, 0521444640, 9780521444644, 9780521785686
• Resource ID: LLS:THEOMUSICTIME
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-01T20:02:38Z

About Jeremy S. Begbie

Jeremy Begbie is the Thomas A. Langford Research Professor at Duke Divinity School, and specializes in the interface between theology and the arts. Previously, he served as the associate principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge, and has also been honorary professor at the University of St. Andrews, where he directed the research project, Theology Through the Arts at the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts.

Begbie studied music and philosophy at Edinburgh University, and theology at Aberdeen and Cambridge. A professionally trained musician, he has performed extensively as a pianist, oboist and conductor. He is an ordained minister of the Church of England, having served for a number of years as assistant pastor of a Church in West London. He is author of a number of books, including Voicing Creation’s Praise: Towards a Theology of the Arts, Theology, Music and Time, and most recently, Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music, which won the Christianity Today 2008 Book Award in the theology/ethics category.