William Edgar: “Heaven in a Nightclub”

In this combination concert-lecture, jazz pianist William Edgar, with bassist Randy Pendleton, will show how both deep sorrow and deep joy form the bedrock of African American musics, in particular the spirituals, jazz, ragtime, gospel, and blues.

—

Dr. William Edgar (Honors Music B.A., Harvard University; MDiv, Westminster Theological Seminary; DThéol, Université de Genève; D.D. Faculté Jean Calvin) is Professor of Apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, where he has taught since 1989. Edgar is currently Professeur Associé at the Faculté Jean Calvin, Aix-en-Provence. He directs the jazz band Renewal.

Edgar’s scholarly interests include apologetics, theology, the music of Brahms, aesthetics, African-American music, and ethics. He belongs to several learned societies, including the American Musicological Society, the Evangelical Theological Society, and the Society for Ethnomusicology. He is former Senior Adviser at the Trinity Fellows Academy. He sits on a number of boards, including the Huguenot Fellowship, which supports French evangelical works.

He has published several books and numerous articles in French and in English. Most recently he has written Does Christianity Really Work? (Christian Focus Publications); Created and Creating; A Biblical Theology of Culture (Inter-Varsity Press); and The Christian Mind (Banner of Truth).

His wife, Barbara, and he, have two (married) children and three grand children.

Read more: https://faculty.wts.edu/faculty/edgar/

—