Theologian, Teacher, Speaker, & Musician
“Precisely because it’s saturated in good news, theology is not only demanding, but endlessly exhilarating.”
Jeremy Begbie
Jeremy Begbie is Thomas A. Langford Distinguished Research Professor of Theology at Duke Divinity School, and the McDonald Agape Director and founder of Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts. He is also a Senior Member at Wolfson College, Cambridge, and an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of Music at the University of Cambridge. His books include A Peculiar Orthodoxy: Reflections on Theology and the Arts (Baker Academic), Redeeming Transcendence in the Arts: Bearing Witness to the Triune God (Eerdmans), Theology, Music and Time (CUP), Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music (Baker), and Music, Modernity, and God (OUP). He is an ordained minister of the Church of England and a professionally trained musician who has performed extensively as a pianist and conductor. He tours widely as a speaker, specializing in multimedia performance-lectures. Recent engagements have included preaching, speaking and performing in universities and churches in North America, Hong Kong, Japan, and Australia.
“Jeremy Begbie is a musician/theologian par excellence. Whatever music you enjoy and wherever you are on the journey of faith, he will delight, surprise, challenge, and inspire you.”
— N.T. Wright
What People Are Saying
“Begbie has taught me to be attuned to musical form as its own kind of live theology.”
— James K.A. Smith
“This guy is amazing, Dr. Jeremy Begbie…I just wept through the whole time he was talking and took furious notes. I still have my little journal where I wrote down what he was sharing. I think about it a ton.”
— Ellie Holcolmb
“Jeremy has helped me to understand and figure out ways to embrace how God works through my work, how I can feel God’s presence through every aspect of my life.”
— Bob Crawford, Avett Brothers
“Jeremy Begbie is one of the most thoughtful and innovative thinkers in the area of music and theology. His writing and speaking is challenging the music and worship community to reimagine what is possible.”
— Randall Bradly, Baylor University
A Portrait of Jeremy Begbie
From the Ordinary Saints series
Art by Bruce Herman, Poem by Malcolm Guite
Out of a latticework of black and gold,
The background of our glory and disgrace,
He looks intently, with the eye of one
Who knows he is redeemed, and at what price.
So, in his piercing glance, the tale is told,
The light of Love shines back from flesh and bone,
The pierced light of the Logos pierces us.
As many colours make the tone of flesh
As there are timbres, colours, in the tone
Of music’s grief and praise. Three single notes
Will form one chord. The heart’s song moves from harsh
And exiled dissonance through broken nights,
Moves darkly through the tension of the cross
To resolution, homecoming, and grace