Reverend Professor Jeremy Begbie
College positions:
Fellow Commoner
Subject:
Theology
Reverend Professor Jeremy Begbie is the Thomas A. Langford Distinguished Research Professor of Theology at Duke Divinity School, and McDonald Agape Director of Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts.
Reverend Professor Begbie graduated from Edinburgh University in 1977 with a BA in Philosophy and Music. He proceeded to gain a BD (1st class) in systematic theology from the University of Aberdeen. After two years of ordination training at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, he pursued doctoral studies in theology and the arts at the University of Aberdeen, graduating with a PhD in 1987.
From 1987 until 2008, he served on the academic staff of Ridley Hall, Cambridge, teaching systematic theology, and latterly was appointed Associate Principal. Concurrently, he was an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of Divinity from 1994-2008 and in the Faculty of Music (until the present day). He established and directed the research project 'Theology Through the Arts' in the Faculty of Divinity from 1997-2000.
In 2000 he was appointed Honorary Reader in the School of Divinity, University of St Andrews, and from 2003, Honorary Professor. There he co-founded The Institute of Theology, Imagination, and the Arts.
From 2008 until the present day, he has served as the Thomas A. Langford (Distinguished) Research Professor of Theology at Duke Divinity School, and is founding Director of Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts.
For the last thirty years his main subject area of teaching has been Christian doctrine or systematic theology. He has taught at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in a number of institutions in the UK, and more recently in the US.
His chief research interest has been in the interaction of Christian theology and the arts. He has pursued this as a two-way interaction: exploring and expounding the bearing of a Christian account of reality on artistic practices, and, in the other direction, examining the ways in which the practices of theology might be enriched and re-invigorated through an engagement with the arts. Of all the arts, music has been his chief area of expertise and scholarly focus; Begbie is a professionally trained musician as well as a theologian.
- 2024 Honorary DD, University of Aberdeen
- 2006 Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music (FRSCM)
- 1987 PhD University of Aberdeen
- 1981 LRAM Royal Academy of Music (London) (piano teaching)
- 1980 BD University of Aberdeen (Systematic Theology, 1st class honours)
- 1977 ARCM Royal College of Music (London) (piano performance)
- 1977 BA University of Edinburgh (philosophy and music)
- 2003 Appointed Honorary Professor, University of St Andrews
- 2006 Honorary Award: Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music (FRSCM), bestowed “for achievements in church music and/or liturgy of international significance”
- 2024 Honorary DD awarded by the University of Aberdeen.
Professional Affiliations
- 2015 Member, Advisory Board, Participatio: The Journal of the Thomas F. Torrance Theological Fellowship
- 2014– Member, Editorial Committee of Yale Journal of Music & Religion
- 2012– Member, Advisory Board, Academic Advisory Board, Faith and Global Engagement Initiative, Hong Kong University
- 2006– Member, Advisory Board, Boston University Messiaen Project
- 2019- Member, the American Academy of Religion
- 1985–2005 Member, The Society for the Study of Theology (UK)
- Abundantly More: Theology and the Arts in a Reductionist Culture (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2023), 272pp.
- A Peculiar Orthodoxy: Reflections on Theology and the Arts (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2018), 224pp.
- Redeeming Transcendence in the Arts: Critical Reflections on a Contemporary Theme (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, and London: SCM, 2018), 224pp.
- Music, Modernity and God: Essays in Listening (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 272pp.
- Theology, Music and Time (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 317pp. (9th printing, 2010.)
- Voicing Creation’s Praise: Towards a Theology of the Arts (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1991), 286pp. (3rd printing, 2006.)
- (co editor) Theology, Music, and Modernity: Struggles for Freedom, co-edited with Daniel K.L. Chua and Markus Rathey (Oxford: OUP, 2021), 370pp.
