Begbie to Present Annual Stob Lectures

Jeremy Begbie, the Thomas A. Langford Research Professor in Theology at Duke Divinity School, will be presenting this year’s Stob Lectures on Wednesday Nov. 19 and Thursday Nov. 20 in the chapel at Calvin College.  

With the overall theme of “What’s Transcendent About the Arts,” both lectures begin at 7:30 p.m.

Free and open to the public, the lectures are co-sponsored by Calvin Seminary and Calvin College.

In a video interview on the website for Duke University’s Faith & Leadership, Bebie discusses the focus of his work and questions he tries to address.

“What can music or the arts bring to theology?” he asks. “How can the particular powers of music help to unlock the great truths of the Christian gospel?”

Begbie, who is  affiliated director in the Faculty of Music at the University of Cambridge, will speak Wednesday on “Musical and Reformed Reflections on a Contemporary Trend - Sublimating Transcendance.”

The Thursday lecture is titled “Musical and Reformed Reflections on a Contemporary Trend - Re-Activating Transcendance.”

Begbie is founding director of Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts, one of the main aims of which is to foster theological-artistic links between Duke and Cambridge.

A trained musician, he has published extensively, and his particular interest is in the interplay between music and theology, bringing to light the different ways they can illuminate and benefit each other.

Begbie says many people have claimed that the arts offer direct access to "the transcendent,” and that this provides Christians with a golden opportunity to engage with a culture that is wary of the direct proclamation of the gospel.

In his lecture, he says, he will examine these claims, “arguing that God's transcendence is to be understood first and foremost through the gospel itself.”

With the help of currents in Reformed theology, he says, he will go on to ask how the arts can be “powerful witnesses to this transcendence, the transcendence embodied for us in Jesus Christ.   There will be extensive use of music -- recorded and live.”

The Stob Lectures are sponsored annually by Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary in honor of Dr. Henry J. Stob, who taught philosophy at the seminary and the college.

Their subject matter is related to the fields of ethics, apologetics, and philosophical theology. The Stob Lectures are funded by the Henry J. Stob Endowment and are administered by a committee including the presidents of Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary.

For additional events, see the Calvin Seminary calendar. Many resources on past lectures are available by visiting Stob Lecture Series.