Christopher Ash on Luke 1–2

Every month, The Good Book Company make available digital versions of one of their books at no charge. This month (December 2024) it’s Repeat the Sounding Joy: A Daily Advent Devotional on Luke 1–2, by Christopher Ash, which is available in exchange for an email address here.

Ink 10 (Winter 2021)

The tenth issue of ink is now available, this one including pieces on how Christmas traditions have distracted us from the story told in the Bible, on Jesus as storyteller, on cognitive linguistics and Mark’s gospel, and on reading Exodus in the light of what we know about ancient Egypt.

UK residents can sign up here to receive a bumper summer issue through the post or subscribe for the digital version of the magazine, but the publication is also available to read from here.

The Bible Project on Luke 1-2

The team at the Bible Project has produced a series of helpful videos walking through Luke’s gospel. The one for chapters 1-2 is here, on events surrounding the birth of Jesus, highlighting how ‘the humble conditions of his family and their low status in Israelite society foreshadow the upside-down nature of Jesus’ kingdom’.

The Bible Project on Luke and Revelation

The latest videos from the excellent Bible Project include an addition to their ‘Animated Series’ on Luke 1-2, and two videos on the book of Revelation in their ‘Read Scripture’ series.

Check out all the videos from here (click on ‘All Videos’ or scroll down the page) or see them all via YouTube here.

Tim Keller on Christmas

Timothy Keller, Hidden Christmas: The Surprising Truth Behind the Birth of Christ (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2016), ix + 148pp., ISBN: 978-1-64258-4.

This was my tube reading for a few days earlier this month. It’s a small hardback with large-ish print, and so a fairly quick read. It also works out quite expensive page for page, but I tried not to think about that too much as it’s Tim Keller, and I was mostly enjoying it.

It’s largely a set of reflections on some of the Christmas-related passages in the Bible. The chapters felt sermonic to me as I was reading them, although they also felt stuffed too full to be read as individual sermons or to be held up as model sermons on their passages. Interestingly, in the acknowledgements section at the end (which I read after I’d read the book), Keller notes that ‘each chapter represents at least 10 or so meditations and sermons on each biblical text, delivered in Christmas services across the decades’. For me, at least, that helped explain the feeling that I was reading something like a mashup of several sermons in each chapter.

Those who enjoy Keller’s work will know what to expect here: a warm engagement with Scripture, intelligent but not pushy reflection on currents in contemporary culture, and constantly coming back to the implications of the gospel for Christians and non-Christians alike.

Stephen R. Holmes on Christmas

Stephen R. Holmes, The Politics of Christmas (London: Theos, 2011).

The ever-productive team at Theos have produced another helpful-looking booklet, this one written by Stephen Holmes, on Christmas.

There are more details here, it’s available for download here, and here’s the back cover blurb:

‘Christmas is about spending time with family and friends... at least, that is what the vast majority of us think.

‘Yet, this safe, domestic Christmas was largely an invention of the Victorians. The Christmas stories themselves, as told in Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels, are far less peaceful and far more unsettling.

‘Economic exploitation, imperial oppression, social stigma, petty tyranny: all are in the sights of a story in which God himself is born into a poor, vulnerable and somewhat unorthodox family unit.

‘While Christmas must undoubtedly be a time for family and generosity, Stephen Holmes argues, it should also be a moment when we hear and attend to the Bible’s message of justice and freedom for all.’