Did Matthew Make Up the Magi?

By |2024-01-08T17:58:33-06:00January 8th, 2024|Categories: Christmas, Dwight Longenecker, Epiphany, Senior Contributors|

When researching the story of the Magi visiting the Christ child in Bethlehem, it is not long before one discovers the scholar’s opinion that the Magi story is likely to be a story concocted by the early Christians—and probably Matthew himself, in order to show Jesus to be the long-looked-for Messiah and fulfillment of the [...]

Imagining the Epiphany

By |2024-01-05T18:33:03-06:00January 5th, 2024|Categories: Christianity, Death, Epiphany, John Willson, Literature, Stephen Masty, Timeless Essays|

The late Steve Masty’s “The Test of the Magi” is a novel that displays a powerful religious imagination and a profound knowledge of the history and cultures of the ancient world, as well as personal experience with the geography and anthropology of the middle east. The Test of the Magi, by Johannes Bergmann (254 pages, [...]

Did the Three Wise Men Really Exist?

By |2024-01-05T18:39:40-06:00January 5th, 2024|Categories: Books, Christmas, Dwight Longenecker, Epiphany, Timeless Essays|

It is easy to understand why skeptical New Testament scholars have relegated the magi from Matthew’s gospel to the realm of fantasy. Were they fanciful figures from the imagination of  Matthew, or historical figures who existed at the time of Christ’s birth? Every good fantasy story needs a magician. Dorothy encounters the Wizard of Oz. [...]

“The Gloucestershire Wassail”: A Carol for Epiphany Eve

By |2024-01-04T19:54:53-06:00January 4th, 2024|Categories: Audio/Video, Christmas, Epiphany, Music, Timeless Essays|

"The Gloucestershire Wassail" is a traditional English carol associated with the eve of Epiphany, when revelers drank wassail punch, a hot-mulled sherry- or brandy-based cider, sweetened with sugar and seasoned with other spices, and including yeast, apples, and toast. According to British Food History, "wassailing predates the Battle of Hastings and is thought to have [...]

“The Miracle of the Bells”: A Forgotten Novel & Film

By |2023-12-28T16:48:50-06:00December 28th, 2023|Categories: Books, Catholicism, Christmas, Film, Timeless Essays|

The Miracle of the Bells doesn’t claim to be great literature, but it is a richly-drawn story about faith and Hollywood, a time capsule of a bygone era that retains its inspirational charm. The Miracle of the Bells by Russell Janney (510 pages, Forgotten Books, 1946) Back in 1947 it was possible for a Catholic novel to [...]

Why “Celebrate” Christmas and the Epiphany?

By |2023-12-27T12:23:44-06:00December 27th, 2023|Categories: Bruce Frohnen, Christianity, Christmas, Epiphany, Timeless Essays|

Why celebrate Christmas? Why throw a party, instead of going to church, in the first place? Is not this religious holiday, by nature calling us to quiet contemplation? Did you know that Christmas celebrations were banned in Scotland until 1958?  I certainly did not, not until my son started working on his sixth-grade “Christmas around [...]

“Good King Wenceslas”

By |2023-12-25T20:01:18-06:00December 25th, 2023|Categories: Audio/Video, Christmas, Music, Timeless Essays|

"Good King Wenceslas" is a Christmas carol that tells a story of a Bohemian king going on a journey and braving harsh winter weather to give alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Stephen (December 26, the Second Day of Christmas). During the journey, his page is about to give up the struggle [...]

The Twelve Days of Christmas

By |2023-12-25T13:49:33-06:00December 25th, 2023|Categories: Christmas, RAK, Russell Kirk, Timeless Essays|

Don’t mistake me for a spoil-sport: on the contrary, I should like to revive all the good old customs genuinely associated with the joyous season of Christmas. In city after city, I have seen Christmas parades on Thanksgiving Day! One might think that we were celebrating the birth of Mammon, rather than that of Jesus, [...]

The Incarnation of Truth and Love

By |2023-12-24T23:27:09-06:00December 24th, 2023|Categories: Christian Humanism, Christianity, Christmas, Love, Paul Krause, Reason, Senior Contributors, Theology, Timeless Essays|

The real claim of Christmas, for Christians, is that Truth and Love penetrated the cosmos. Christmas is a warm, loving, and tender season precisely for this reason. That warm fire, or bright sky, or joyful company, is made possible only because that God which ever lives and loves—to which the whole creation moves—entered the creation [...]

Finding Faith in the Manger: Berlioz’s “Infancy of Christ”

By |2023-12-24T23:23:09-06:00December 24th, 2023|Categories: Audio/Video, Christmas, Hector Berlioz, Hector Berlioz Sesquicentennial Series, Music, Timeless Essays|

Hector Berlioz was a professed atheist, but could anything as tender and touching as "L’Enfance du Christ" have been written by a man who did not believe? And what of Berlioz’s closing line to the work: “Oh my soul, what remains for you to do but shatter your pride before so great a mystery?" The [...]

The Pure, True Beauty of “O Holy Night”

By |2024-02-13T05:45:56-06:00December 23rd, 2023|Categories: Audio/Video, Christmas, Music|

“O Holy Night” is a carol with a purity, beauty and a timeless message I dearly love. What I’ve always thought of as a humble yet glorious, affecting Christmas carol, turns out to have a vaguely spicy story behind it. Confession: I stopped writing this essay on “O Holy Night,” soured by something I couldn’t [...]

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