You Tube Theology

Professor Jeremy Begbie presented the 2010 New College Lecture Series titled Music, Modernity & God. The lectures were held at The John Niland Scientia Building on-campus at the University of New South Wales and were presented over three nights to over 500 people. This video excerpt comes from the second lecture in the series given on Wednesday 15 September 2010. The lecture was titled Freedom -- Can we be free with God around? It has been said that the quest for freedom defines the modern age. And it is often assumed that the more God is involved in our lives, the less freedom we have. In this lecture, Jeremy Begbie showed that 'musical space' can help us develop a far more biblical account of human freedom and discover that God is not freedom's enemy. Scarcely a day goes by when we are not surrounded by music: it is pervasive. But what we can easily overlook is the part music has played in the debates surrounding the pivotal issues that have shaped our culture, issues that at their deepest level concern belief in God. Over the three lectures Professor Begbie argued that music is much more than just an accompaniment to life, it is an important part of the life God has given us and both reflects and speaks of God's purposes for us. He suggested that if we didn't have music we would be all the poorer because music can help us to 'read' the story of our culture with the eyes of Christian faith, responding in fresh ways to some of the deepest dilemmas and truths of our time. Furthermore, music offers metaphors that can help us to understand the deep truths of Christianity -- God, creation, freedom, rebellion and sin, salvation and redemption, the new creation to come and the fulfilment of God's promises in Christ. He led us to this conclusion by teaching using word, image, recorded music and performance on the piano. It was a memorable and deeply challenging series.