On Sunday, First United Methodist Church welcomes Dr. Jeremy Begbie to worship services at 8:30  11 a.m. to preach, and for a program at 3 p.m. in the  sanctuary on “How Music Can Help Us Hear the Parables of Jesus as Never Before.”
Dr. Begbie teaches theology and specializes in the interface between theology and the arts. He is a professionally trained musician who has performed extensively as a pianist, oboistand conductor.
He brings the depth of this experience to his work as a theologian. He teaches and lectures around the world, but primarily spends his time at the University of Cambridge and at Duke Divinity School, where he is the Thomas A. Langford Research Professor in Theology, and the Founding Director of Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts, which aims to explore how the arts and theology can inform one another. He is an ordained minister of the Church of England, having served a church in West London for a number of years.
He is author of a number of books, including Voicing Creation’s Praise: Towards a Theology of the Arts; Theology, Music and Time, and Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music, which won the Christianity Today 2008 Book Award in the Theology/Ethics Category. Most recently, he has published Redeeming Transcendence in the Arts: Bearing Witness to the Triune God.