Music, Modernity, and God

Essays in Listening

Jeremy Begbie

A major new contribution from one of the leading voices in theology and the arts
Addresses some of the most intractable theological "problems" of the modern age through the lens of musical thought and experience
Seeks to engage with respect and rigor the work of musicologists who have shown a willingness to explore specifically Christian dimensions of music with scholarly seriousness
Structured to allow the reader to enjoy individual chapters as standalone essays in their own right or equally read from cover to cover and benefit from the overlapping themes running through the book
Includes an extensive bibliography

Music, Modernity, and God

Essays in Listening

Jeremy Begbie

Description

When the story of modernity is told from a theological perspective, music is routinely ignored - despite its pervasiveness in modern culture and the manifold ways it has been intertwined with modernity's ambivalent relation to the Christian God. In conversation with musicologists and music theorists, in this collection of essays Jeremy Begbie aims to show that the practices of music and the discourses it has generated bear their own kind of witness to some of the pivotal theological currents and counter-currents shaping modernity. Music has been deeply affected by these currents and in some cases may have played a part in generating them. In addition, Begbie argues that music is capable of yielding highly effective ways of addressing and moving beyond some of the more intractable theological problems and dilemmas which modernity has bequeathed to us.

Music, Modernity, and God includes studies of Calvin, Luther, and Bach, an exposition of the intriguing tussle between Rousseau and the composer Rameau, and an account of the heady exaltation of music to be found in the early German Romantics. Particular attention is paid to the complex relations between music and language, and the ways in which theology, a discipline involving language at its heart, can come to terms with practices like music, practices which are coherent and meaningful but which in many respects do not operate in language-like ways.

Music, Modernity, and God

Essays in Listening

Jeremy Begbie

1. Introduction: Listening to Music
2. Shifting Sensibilities: Calvin and Music
3. Disquieting Conversations: Bach, Modernity and God
4. The Nature of Music: Rameau, Rousseau and Natural Theology
5. Musical Apotheosis: Early German Romanticism
6. Room of One s Own? Music, Space, and Freedom
7. Music and God-talk (1): Mapping the Field
8. Music and God-talk (2): Interaction in Action

Music, Modernity, and God

Essays in Listening

Jeremy Begbie

Author Information

Jeremy Begbie is the inaugural holder of the Thomas A. Langford Research Professorship in Theology at Duke Divinity School, North Carolina, and founding Director of Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts. He teaches systematic theology, and specializes in the interface between theology and the arts. His particular research interest is the interplay between music and theology. He is also Senior Member at Wolfson College, Cambridge, and an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of Music at the University of Cambridge. He is author of a number of books, including Voicing Creation's Praise: Towards a Theology of the Arts; Theology, Music and Time, and Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music which won the Christianity Today 2008 Book Award in the Theology/Ethics Category. A professionally trained and active musician, Begbie has taught widely in the UK and North America, and delivered performance-lectures across the world.

Music, Modernity, and God

Essays in Listening

Jeremy Begbie

Reviews and Awards

"Begbie effectively and thoroughly examines the natures of both verbal and doctrinal languages that communicate and miscommunicate. Meanwhile, his discussions branch out to various disciplinary areas and create further applications to contrasting concepts, such as cosmology and anthropology, confinement and freedom, discovery and inventiveness, creation and human culture, eternity and transience, metaphysics and metalinguistics. The perspicacity to explore and expand the capacity of musical sound and its semantic applications certainly carries a huge impact on contemporary theological discourses... This is the perimeter and purpose of this scholarly research that, at the same time, is an introduction leading to a farther and wider study."--Artistic Theologian

"Although Begbie advances sophisticated and sometimes technical arguments, his lucid prose rewards those who heed the invitation to listen: the theologian, the musician, and the pastor alike." --Transpositions

"In conversation with musicologists and music theorists, this collection of essays shows that the practices of music and the discourses it has generated bear their own kind of witness to some of the pivotal theological currents and counter-currents shaping modernity. Music has been deeply affected by these currents and in some cases may have played a part in generating them. Begbie argues that music is capable of yielding highly effective ways of addressing and moving beyond some of the more intractable theological problems and dilemmas which modernity has bequeathed to us." --Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology

Music, Modernity, and God

Essays in Listening

Jeremy Begbie

From Our Blog

Bernstein's disturbing vision

By Jeremy Begbie On my office wall I keep two photos together in a single frame. They show two teachers who inspired me more than any others'my first theology teacher, James Torrance (1923'2003), and next to him the American conductor, composer and pianist, Leonard Bernstein (1918'1990).

Posted on January 23, 2014

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