This beautiful, comprehensive handbook thoroughly covers the religious and cultural significance of the Christian festival of Christmas. Larsen (Christian thought, Wheaton College, Illinois) assembled an international team of contributors, and he divides their 45 essays into eight topical parts. "History" covers the history of Christmas in Christianity from the beginning to the present; "Theology" and "Worshipping Communities" deal with, respectively, the biblical and theological aspects of Christmas and how the holiday is observed within the various Christian communities; and "The Nativity Story" examines different aspects of the traditional Christmas narrative. ... Though the beauty of the book and its illustrations could lead one to think otherwise, this is a serious work of scholarship, as evidenced by the extensive bibliographies at the end of each essay.
Professor Timothy Larsen is McManis Professor of Christian Thought, Wheaton College; an Honorary Fellow, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh; and an Honorary Research Fellow, University of Wales Trinity Saint David. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, All Souls College, Oxford, and Christ Church, Oxford. His books include Crisis of Doubt: Honest Faith in Nineteenth-Century England (OUP 2006); A People of One Book: The Bible and the Victorians (OUP 2011); The Slain God: Anthropologists and the Christian Faith (OUP 2014); and John Stuart Mill: A Secular Life (OUP 2018).