"A fine collection of probing and imaginative discussions on the relation between the Incarnation and the arts." -Nicholas Wolterstorff, Yale Divinity School

Late-modern culture has been marred by reductionism, which shrinks and flattens our vision of ourselves and the world. Renowned theologian Jeremy Begbie believes that the arts by their nature push against reductionism, helping us understand and experience more deeply the infinite richness of God's love and of the world God has made. In Abundantly More, Begbie analyzes and critiques reductionism and its effects. He shows how the arts can resist reductive impulses by opening us up to an unlimited abundance of meaning. And he demonstrates how engaging the arts in light of a trinitarian imagination (which itself cuts against reductionism) generates a unique way of witnessing to and sharing in the life and purposes of God. Theologians, artists, and any who are interested in how these fields intersect will find rich resources here and discover the crucial role the arts can play in keeping our culture open to the possibility of God.

Theology, Music and Time shows ways in which music can deepen our understanding of the Christian God and his involvement with the world. Without assuming any specialist knowledge of music, the author explores rhythm, meter, resolution, repetition and improvisation, and through them opens up some of the central themes of the Christian faith--creation, salvation, eschatology, time and eternity, eucharist, election and ecclesiology. He shows that music can refresh theology, giving it new ways of coming to terms with God.

From the iPod to the car radio, from movie soundtracks to Muzak at the shopping mall, from singing in the shower to the concert arena, music is an unavoidable part of our lives. Not only is music ubiquitous, it is powerful: creating moods, evoking memories and images, uniting people, and providing an outlet of expression for even the most tone deaf among us. Besides its prominent position in culture, music has obviously had a key role in the worship of God's people.

This well-rounded study examines the connections between music and theology by engaging Scripture, musical history, and contemporary culture and exploring how God's truth sounds and how it might "re-sound" in the realm of music. "Resounding Truth" will help readers develop discernment and wisdom, both for thinking about music in the church and Christian life and for engaging with one of culture's most influential touchstones.

"A profound, rigorous, and original work. Very few new books in theology or religious studies show this level of freshness and imagination. I hope it will be a landmark essay in this crucial field of reflection on theology and the creative arts." --Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

"Jeremy Begbie is musician/theologian par excellence. Whatever music you enjoy and wherever you are on the journey of faith and understanding, he will delight, surprise, challenge, and inspire you. A wonderful book by a wonderful writer, thinker, and musician." --N. T. Wright, Bishop of Durham

"Jeremy Begbie has published a number of fine books in which he, as both a Christian theologian and a practicing musician, reflects on music; but this is his finest. It is theologically acute, deeply informed by both thehistory of music and the history of reflections on music, and throughout displays Begbie's wide-ranging engagement with music of many kinds from both the past and the present. A rich contribution!" --Nicholas Wolterstorff, Yale University and University of Virginia

"Jeremy Begbie's thinking emerges out of a fusion of the best musical thinking about theology and the best theological thinking about music. The resulting text is charged with energy and insight--and not just for musicians and theologians. This vital work is poised to energize and strengthen the entire Christian community." --John D. Witvliet, Calvin Institute of Christian Worship

"This book resounds with the thoughtful, dynamic, and always engaging voice of Jeremy Begbie. Marked by a breathtaking range, driven by a creative vision, and packed with judicious insights, it will no doubt shape conversations about theology and the arts for years to come." --Roger Lundin, Wheaton College

Theology, Music and Time shows ways in which music can deepen our understanding of the Christian God and his involvement with the world. Without assuming any specialist knowledge of music, the author explores rhythm, meter, resolution, repetition and improvisation, and through them opens up some of the central themes of the Christian faith--creation, salvation, eschatology, time and eternity, eucharist, election and ecclesiology. He shows that music can refresh theology, giving it new ways of coming to terms with God.

World-renowned theologian Jeremy Begbie has been at the forefront of teaching and writing on theology and the arts for more than twenty years. Amid current debates and discussions on the topic, Begbie emphasizes the role of a biblically grounded creedal orthodoxy as he shows how Christian theology and the arts can enrich each other. Throughout the book, Begbie demonstrates the power of classic trinitarian faith to bring illumination, surprise, and delight whenever it engages with the arts.

Resonant Witness gathers together a wide, harmonious chorus of voices from across the musical and theological spectrum to show that music and theology can each learn much from the other -- and that the majesty and power of both are profoundly amplified when they do. With essays touching on J. S. Bach, Hildegard of Bingen, Martin Luther, Karl Barth, Olivier Messiaen, jazz improvisation, South African freedom songs, and more, this volume encourages musicians and theologians to pursue a more fruitful and sustained engagement with one another. Contributors: Jeremy S. BegbieBruce Ellis BensonAlastair BorthwickDaniel K. L. ChuaNancy van DeusenMargot FasslerSteven R. GuthrieCarol HarrisonTrevor HartC. Michael HawnJoyce IrwinJohn Paul ItoAnthony MontiDavid J. R. S. MoseleyMichael O'ConnorCatherine PickstockRichard J. PlantingaRobert ShollNancy van DeusenJohn D. Witvliet

Synopsis: "The conversation between music and theology, dormant for too long in recent years, is at last gathering pace. And rightly so. There will always be theologians who will regard music as a somewhat peripheral concern, too trivial to trouble the serious scholar, and in any case almost impossible to engage because of its notorious resistance to words and concepts. But an increasing number are discovering again what many of our forbears realized centuries ago, that the kinship between this pervasive feature of human life and the search for a Christian 'intelligence of faith' is intimate and ineradicable. Maeve Heaney's ambitious, wide-ranging, and energetic book pushes the conversation further forward still. Her approach is unapologetically theological, grounded in the passions and concerns of mainstream doctrinal theology. And yet she is insisting . . . that music must be given its due place in the ecology of theology. Although convinced that music should not be set up as a rival to linguistic or conceptual articulation, let alone swallow up 'traditional' modes of theological language and thought, she is equally convinced that music is an irreducible means of coming to terms with the world, a unique vehicle of world-disclosure, and as such, can generate a particular form of 'understanding': 'there are things which God may only be saying through music.' If this is so, it is incumbent on the theologian to listen." --Jeremy Begbie, from the Foreword Endorsements: "In a daring and inspiring study in theology as an aesthetic discipline, Heaney explores the role of music in the aesthetic conversion of people to their real, bodily presence. As Christian faith teaches that God has revealed and reveals himself in real, bodily presence, and as our reception of his real presence demands our real presence, it follows that music can make us susceptible to God's revelation." --Willem Marie Speelman, Tilburg University "Heaney offers us a courageously interdisciplinary book on how music can mediate religious faith. She brings together her own gifts as composer, performer, and theologian in order to create a fruitful dialog between musical theory, theological aesthetics, and a praxis of religious communication. Thus, readers will find many stimulating pages, ranging from personal testimony to academic insights." --Michael Paul Gallagher, Gregorian University "It would be hard to imagine a book more committed to exploring and celebrating music's theological gifts, present as well as past. Heaney conveys a marvelous sense of music as a living medium, resonant with theological significance on multiple levels, and able to enter into and nurture the transformed, embodied Christian life. In this multifaceted study, she draws on an impressive (at times almost overwhelming) array of resources, from ethnomusicology to theological aesthetics, especially, but not exclusively, Catholic." --Frank Burch Brown, University of Chicago Divinity School Author Biography: Maeve Louise Heaney, a missionary of the Verbum Dei Fraternity, has taught at the Pontifical Gregorian University and is the 2011-2012 Banaan Fellow of Santa Clara University, California. She researches and teaches in the areas of fundamental theology, music, and spirituality.

Synopsis: Shame has many faces. From the pressing need to avoid "losing face" to the urge to scapegoat and blame, from the desire to exclude those who are different to the horrors of ethnic cleansing, from the obsession with body image to the abiding terrors of the abused, shame is a universal phenomenon. It transcends boundaries of time and is evident in diverse cultures across the world. It is, furthermore, found throughout the pages of Scripture, yet in modern theology shame is conspicuous by its absence. This book attempts to redress the balance by exploring the theology of shame, from its inception in the garden of Eden, to the final triumph over shame on the cross. Restoring the Shamed will offer readers the opportunity to think theologically about one of the most urgent, yet strangely secret, issues of contemporary society. Endorsements: "Robin Stockitt's Restoring the Shamed is a rediscovery of a neglected dimension in the biblical witnesses, making it relevant for today's most painful human experiences. It offers an abundance of pastoral insights, creative theological explorations, and imaginative suggestions for ecclesial practice. Beginning with . . . the absence of a theology of shame in modern theology, the book becomes a courageous and rewarding journey of theological discovery." -Christoph Schwobel Chair in Systematic Theology University of Tubingen "This is a passionate book, in all the right senses . . . Reading it will not only help to restore the shamed; it will likely restore a godly passion-and few things are more sorely needed in theology today." -Jeremy S. Begbie Thomas A. Langford Research Professor Duke Divinity School "Robin Stockitt has written a powerful and persuasive book that shows the centrality of shame in human experience and in the biblical message. It is the most readable and theologically astute account of Christ's ministry to the shamed that is available today. This warmly pastoral book contains rich resources to deal with crippling experiences such as being treated as unworthy or unwanted." -Robert Jewett Visiting Professor of New Testament University of Heidelberg Author Biography: Robin Stockitt is the minister of the Anglican Church in Freiburg, Germany. He is the author of Open to the Spirit: Ignatius of Loyola and John Wimber in Dialogue (2000) and Imagination and the Playfulness of God: The Theological Implications of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Definition of the Human Imagination (2011).

To Barth, Bonhoeffer, and the Torrances, grace is not an abstract truth; it is reality itself. By God's revelation in Jesus Christ we are given the blessed assurance to know that all human beings are included in the humanity of the Savior. And in Christ we discover the movements of grace, a double movement at once God-humanward and human-Godward, all by the Holy Spirit. These theologians were keen to remind us that Christ's ongoing mediatorship includes all appropriate human responses to God. In fact, only by grace and in union with Christ do we have true response-ability. It is this "going with the flow" of the Holy Spirit en Christo that makes Christo-realism so dynamic and life-giving.