Christianity Today

December, 2021

Volume 65, Number 9

The Gospel of Advent
November, 2021

The Gospels are silent about most of Jesus’ life on earth. Perhaps no time of year are we more aware of that than during Advent, when perennial questions resurface: When exactly did those Magi visit? What was Christ’s childhood like? His education? Did his family live in relative comfort, or in penury? At the center of all these questions is the void in what we know about Joseph. But what little information we do have offers a lot to explore. Our stories this month reexamine Joseph’s spirituality and the trade he passed on to his son. PLUS: Why there’s still plenty of Christ in Christmas.

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Features

No One Took Christ Out of Christmas

Let’s dispense with our worries that Christmas as we know it isn’t Christian.

Excerpt

If a Social Issue Matters to God, the Church Should Be Praying About It

Too often, our practices of intercession are thin to nonexistent. The Reformed tradition shows us how to revive them.

How Archaeologists Are Finding the Signatures of Bible Kings, Ancient Villains, and Maybe a Prophet

Wet sifting brings us closer than ever to the world of Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Hezekiah.

My Boss Is a Jewish Construction Worker

Our popular imagining of Christ as a woodworker obscures a richer story.

More from this Issue

Why We Put Christ Above Clicks

The marketplace rewards scorn. CT has always sought a better way.

Reply All

Responses to our October issue.

Our December Issue: When God’s Word is Silent

The Gospels don’t tell us what we don’t need to know.

News

News

The Secret to Deradicalizing Militants Might be Found in Middle Eastern Churches

A bold new thesis proposed in extremist studies is based in testimony of Arab Christian pastors.

News

We’ve No Less Days to Sing God’s Praise, But New Worship Songs Only Last a Few Years

A study finds an increasingly rapid turnover time for church music.

News

All I Want for Christmas Is a Song that Mentions Jesus

Most-played hits around the world celebrate love, snow, and chestnuts before getting around to Christ.

News

D Is for Discipleship. E Is for Eschaton.

It’s a new golden age of children’s books filled to the brim with theology—and imagination.

News

Gleanings: December 2021

News of Christians around the world.

Reviews

5 Ways Nonbelievers Are Drawn to God Without Knowing It

How the Bible’s doctrine of humanity gives us hope for reaching even the hardest of hearts.

Review

Disowning ‘Evangelical’ Is a Denial of Responsibility

If our movement is carrying reputational baggage, then we have no choice but to own it.

Review

A Requiem for the Disappearing Christians of Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Gaza

Their plight moved a (mostly prayerless) war correspondent to prayer and mourning.

5 Books on the History of Christmas

Chosen by Gerry Bowler, author of “Christmas in the Crosshairs: Two Thousand Years of Denouncing and Defending the World’s Most Celebrated Holiday.”

New & Noteworthy Fiction

Chosen by Lisa Wingate, author of “The Book of Lost Friends” and “Before We Were Yours.”

Views

Why I’m Losing My Millennium

Whether or not this is the apocalypse, there are more important things afoot.

Editorial

Visitors to Those in Prison Are Getting Screened Out

Video calls can supplement but should never supplant visits with incarcerated people.

This Christmas, Hold on to the Right Things

Keeping a loose grip on people and possessions makes us more hopeful.

Old Testament Israel Can Do No Wrong. Except When It Can’t Do Anything Right.

What a pair of seemingly contradictory psalms teaches us about telling the church’s story.

In 2022, Let’s Take T.S. Eliot’s Advice

The poet said Christian institutions and community needed refreshing. They still do.

Additional Articles

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