Why the Arts Matter in a Culture of Reductionism

In this lecture, which includes performance at the piano, Begbie will aim to show that the arts, so often thought to be frivolous and shallow pursuits, offer a powerful resistance to some of the most dangerous forces in late modern culture: above all, the pressures of reductionism. He will show how this is of enormous significance for the Church today.

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.

This event is free and open to the public.