Theology, Music and Time

Cambridge Studies in Christian Doctrine

by Jeremy S. Begbie

Theology, Music and Time shows ways in which music can deepen our understanding of the Christian God and his involvement with the world. Without assuming any specialist knowledge of music, the author explores rhythm, meter, resolution, repetition and 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 refresh theology, giving it new ways of coming to terms with God.

Genres: Theology, Music, Religion, Philosophy, Christian, Art, Spirituality

317 pages, Paperback

First published July 24, 2000

About the author

Dr Jeremy Begbie is Thomas A. Langford Distinguished Research Professor of Theology at Duke Divinity School, Duke University, where he directs Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts. His primary research interest is the correlation between theology and the arts, in particular the interplay between music and theology. he is also an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of Music at the University of Cambridge.

Reviews

[Raf Nieves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just... amazing. It left me wondering, "How can someone even write something like this?"

[Tora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Theology, Music and Time is a serious theological engagement with music, and proves Begbie's thesis that such interaction can lead to much theological fruit. Specifically he deals with time as it relates to music, as music's primary mode of existence as well as its primary constraint. As a 'performative' activity, music challenges theology's 'bad habits' of intellectualism and offers some new ways of thinking about how to 'make peace' with our created temporality, i.e. living in the 'meantime'.

[lisey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just love the way Begbie writes. It turns me into a puddle of mush.

What I got from this was his alternative take on "subjective" and "objective" time. Schutz's phenomenology of time (based on my limited understanding about this subject) makes a distinction between "inner" time (your feelings and moods relating to the music) and the "outer" passing of time. Begbie sees music as a temporal art in itself. The impermanence and instability of musical performance as it takes place in real-time is what invokes spiritual experiences.

For Begbie, life occurs in rhythms. Bodily rhythms, macrocycles, sleep and digestion, the central nervous system, heartbeat, breathing and pulse are all immediate and grounded in temporality. While it can feel like you are soaring, it's not in spite of time, but because of it that connectedness to the divine feels so real in those moments.

(I listened to Shaker Hymns while reading this book. Much recommended. Especially "Not One Sparrow is Forgotten".)

[Tiffany]

Very lucid with lovely moments. Enjoyable to read such a capable writer Really loved the incorporation of improvisation theory from drama as part of the resourcing of theology with theory/practice of improv in jazz. Want to write to Begbie and tell him to read A Visit from The Goon Squad ASAP and see if it is as vibrantly practicing the overlap between lit and music in the ideas he's setting forward as I think.

[Kent Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the way Begbie thinks.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Works out in fresh and insightful ways the relationship between time in music and Christian doctrines related to eschatology, the eucharist, etc.

[Brad Hodges · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's nice to find someone with some answers.