weekend reads
Tomorrow marks the first Sunday of Advent. This December, we’ll be publishing new reporting, reflections, and devotional entries to carry you through to Christmas. But there’s also plenty of older work in the Christianity Today archives worth returning to at this time of year.
A few of our staff favorites: Eugene Peterson on Christmas without a tree, Esau McCaulley on hope for the fatherless, and Fleming Rutledge on why the Apocalypse is essential for Advent.
Plus: The country with the world’s longest Christmas season, Christmas as an introvert (and a Scrooge), the many interpretations of the Magi, and our tendency to well, actually inaccurate Nativity scenes.
weekend listen
From our recent archives: A closer look at the perennial Christmas classic “Mary Did You Know?,” a report on Messiah sings, the history of lessons and carols, and a collection of African Christmas hits.
Plus: This year’s best new Christmas music releases.
editors’ picks
Kate Shellnutt, editorial director, news: The Christmas Promise: A True Story from the Bible about God’s Forever King, is just the kind of actually Christian kids book that you want to give and read to the little ones in your life at the holidays. It’s got elements that make it fun to read (the “whoosh!” of the angels coming) but also cares about biblical accuracy (portraying Jesus as a kid and no longer in the manger when the wise men arrive).
Emily Belz, staff writer: With Quincy Jones’s recent passing, it’s a good time to listen to an under-the-radar but all-time-great Christmas album he produced, Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration.
Bonnie Kristian, editorial director, ideas & books: I make this toffee annually.
prayers of the people
- For those who are grieving this Christmas.
- For the lyrics of popular carols, playing in grocery stores and on radio stations, to move us anew.
- For the church to be a holy family, turning “strangers into siblings and childless men and women into spiritual fathers and mothers.”
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more from CT
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Church structures and schedules often make it hard for the working class to participate.
Let’s change that.The looming new year can be anxiety-inducing—but God has all the mercy, grace, and rest we need.
IN THE MAGAZINE
As this issue hits your mailboxes after the US election and as you prepare for the holidays, it can be easy to feel lost in darkness. In this issue, you’ll read of the piercing light of Christ that illuminates the darkness of drug addiction at home and abroad, as Angela Fulton in Vietnam and Maria Baer in Portland report about Christian rehab centers. Also, Carrie McKean explores the complicated path of estrangement and Brad East explains the doctrine of providence. Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt shows us how art surprises, delights, and retools our imagination for the Incarnation, while Jeremy Treat reminds us of an ancient African bishop’s teachings about Immanuel. Finally, may you be surprised by the nearness of the “Winter Child,” whom poet Malcolm Guite guides us enticingly toward. Happy Advent and Merry Christmas.
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